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YOUNG 



AMERICA 



IN 



WALL-STREET 



BY 



/ 



QEORaE FRANCIS TRAIN, 



AUTHOR OF "YOUNG AMERICA. ABROAD. 



Nero-fork: <£* 
DERBY & JACKSON, PUBLISHERS, 

119 NASSAU-STREET. 

1857. 



\\ TV 

HCrHS 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, 
By DERBY & JACKSON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
Southern District of New-York. 






INTRODUCTION 



The time-worn adage that " young men should be seen 
and not heard," has closed many a young man's mouth. 
The sage who made it, forgot to mention the maxim in 
the succeeding chapter — that " gravity was often a mys- 
terious carriage of the body to conceal the defects of the 
mind." " Young men think old men are fools — old 
men know that young men are," was rub number two 
for " Young America." If young men are fools, could 
their fathers have been sages ? "A little knowledge is 
a dangerous thing" is another apothegm of sham philo- 
sophy. Is not, I ask, in all reason, a little knowledge of 
the present state of our financial affairs better than none 
at all ? 

During the last generation the young man has had 
a hard fight in the battle of life, and met with little or 
no encouragement from the old. If he kept the old track 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

he was all right, if he struck out a new path for himself 
he was all wrong. If he asked to he taken into the 
firm, he was met with a volume of unprofitable good 
advice. But was he taken into the firm ? Oh, no ! 
Anything hut that. He was told to he conservative — to 
he prudent — to he cautious — to keep cool, and not to 
get excited — to listen rather than to talk— to speak 
only when he was spoken to — to observe what was pass- 
ing, and warned against the audacity of commenting on 
what he saw ; and if, daring to walk more rapidly than 
the rule, he disobeyed in any of these particulars, 
he was, in the estimation of the savans of commerce, 
rushing recklessly and rapidly to ruin ! How often has 
such admonition, good of itself, but having nothing sub- 
stantial to back it, chilled the heart and cramped the am- 
bition of the young man, who, without rich friends or rich 
connections, has striven in vain to make a start in life ! 

The young man has thus been taught, in the roughest 
school, that he " must learn to labor and to wait" if he 
expect to be successful. While laboring hard and wait- 
ing long, if he have the temerity to print a letter — he 
is censured ! If he express an opinion — he is sneered at. 
If he make a speech, he is ridiculed. If he write a book, 
the chances are that he will be ruined for life, as far as 
the sage opinions of his elders can suffice to ruin him. 
His notes don't pass, — that freezing, contemptuous, and 



INTRODUCTION. 



suggestive shrug of the shoulder of the great man 
on 'change cramps all his energies. Poor fellow, he must 
not complain ; he forgets that he is young. Let him 
expect advancement when his hair is grey and his brow is 
furrowed, — let him live in hope even if he die in despair. 
He may he a junior partner some day, perhaps even before 
he is sixty ! 

I am a Bostonian, and know how hard it is to penetrate 
through the powerful freemasonry of a Boston firm. 
Returning from abroad after an absence of several years, 
I find the same clerks on the same wharves, in the same 
counting houses, with the same thread-bare coats on — 
the same salaries — living from year to year on pro- 
mises — promises that cheer them till life is worn 
away in the service of others, who, when at last an 
opportunity arrives to advance them, have not the will 
to do it ! 

The New- York merchants may take more interest in 
the young man's welfare than the " solid men of Boston ;" 
but even in this progressive city I fear that youth is a 
drug in the market. Pray do not suppose for a moment 
that I do not respect the counsels of the old ; I have ever 
sought their society — ever associated with those older 
than myself — ever listened when they advised — ever 
striven to profit by their experience ; but the moment 
the young man dares to express an opinion of his own 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

he is at once considered a fit candidate for a lunatic 
asylum. My object in publishing these letters is to 
show at least a shade of " method in my madness." 

Hard mental labor, in the three great Anglo-Saxon 
lands, America, England, and Australia, under the 
weighty responsibility of an extensive House, unless I was 
more stupid than the common herd, should have given me 
some practical experience in the way of managing busi- 
ness. From Australia I stepped into Asia, saw Africa, 
passed through Europe into England, and returned 
last year to America, — my eyes wide open, as I hurried 
round the world. "While here I made arrangements to 
establish a commission and banking-house in London. 
Returning to England, I imagined the times were chang- 
ing. An inward voice said, Don't be in a hurry, wait. I 
suddenly became an old fogy, and went to the Continent, 
where I have spent a twelvemonth in improving my knowl- 
edge of the European languages. Freeman Hunt, of the 
Merchants' Magazine, wrote me, with the request that 
I would throw him off an occasional article on European 
Finance. When tired with poring over French, Italian, 
and German verbs, I changed the course of my thoughts 
by diving down into the archives of the Credit Mobilier, 
the Bank of France, and the Bank of England. The mo- 
ment I examined the statistics I thought I saw breakers 
ahead; and having seen the leading merchants and 



INTRODUCTION, Vii 

bankers, from Melbourne to Manhattan, from Batavia to 
Amsterdam, from Canton to Constantinople, — having talked 
with peasant as well as prince, from Shanghai to Stock- 
holm, from Hobart Town to London, from New South 
"Wales to St. Petersburg, I came to the conclusion that the 
panic of 1857 must be more terrific than anything be- 
fore ! Why ? Because the application of high pressure 
to machinery had been paralleled by a high pressure to 
finance. The moral world has shared the impetus of the 
physical ; and there is a bursting of the boiler in the one 
case, as well as in the other. 

I found over-stocked markets everywhere, ruinous com- 
petition and extravagant living in all lands ; no wonder it 
made me croak ! — the raven was always " at my chamber- 
door, — croaking, croaking, evermore!" When a man of 
sense and observation was thrown into my company, I 
nailed him for a financial argument. I talked on all sides 
of a Panic, to get from different minds sound views. 
Politics I discussed with the Herald, finance with Hunt, 
and if I have foreshadowed what has come to pass, don't 
think I am so egotistical as to take to myself any credit 
for particular foresight on the subject. I only produced 
a digest from the minds of others. I talked with older 
men, — men who had notes to meet, — men, who could 
not see a panic coming, because it was not their interest 
Neither was it mine. Yet I could not shut my eyes to the 



Vlll INTRODUCTION, 

fact that was staring me in the face. When making as« 
sertions I gave the figures ; when talking of a crisis, in the 
absence of facts I argued from reason ; I marked the 
cause, and saw the effect : such views led me to examine 
the workings of commerce, and the more I sought, the 
less confidence I had in the future. Most of the London 
journals argued exactly against me ; one of the leading 
minds of the London Times told me he expected a crisis, 
yet the " City Article" went on the even tenor of its way. 
Bennett was the only man who saw the approaching 
storm, and boldly made the signal to take in sail ; but 
who regarded him ? Even now there are many who give 
him the credit of the whole disaster — -just as though an 
individual mind could break a solvent nation I 

The truth is we are a fast people, bound to beat the 
world, even in the abysses of our insolvency. The most 
surprising thing to me is, that an intelligent commu- 
nity, a mercantile people, could march on with a steady 
tramp to the brink of a precipice, blindfold their eyes, 
recklessly advance, deliberately step over, and fall into 
an almost universal bankruptcy, without being aware 
of it themselves ! 

Mr. Stevens, Mr. Appleton, Mr. Leavitt, say they 
have never seen such times. Indeed ! what a remark- 
able discovery ! How, for a moment, can an intelligent 
man compare this panic with that of 1837 ? Our com- 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

meroe was then in a nutshell, now it covers a 
world. 

These were my arguments in continental Europe, in 
England, and in America, viz. : that the credit bubble 
to-day has been inflated in proportion to the progress 
the nation has made since that day. Tom Thumb and 
the Belgian giant are very poor comparisons. At that time 
Biddle and the National Bank were the scapegoats. Yet 
large as were their transactions, the Illinois Central 
and another Western railway or two would swallow up 
the entire Biddleisms of that day. Eastern lands in 
1837 comprised a few thousand square acres in Maine. 
Western lands to-day are in the hands of several great 
States, each competing with the other to see who can 
speculate the most wildly ! 

Our financial leaders seem to have forgotten that our- 
twenty-five thousand miles of railway have been con- 
structed since that day ! 

That our immense steam fleet has been sent to sea 
since that day ! 

That our gigantic shipping interest, comprising some 
five millions of tons, has been launched since that 'day ! 

That our extensive manufactories have been erected 
since that day ! 

That our enormous dry-goods trade with England and 
Europe has been proportionably expanded since that day ! 

That the marble palaces on Broadway, and the brown- 



X INTRODUCTION. 

stone houses on Fifth Avenue, have sprung into existence 
since that day ! 

That silks and satins, laces and crinoline, hoops and 
diamonds, fast horses, clubs, and brandy smashes have 
been introduced since that day ! 

That steam, the telegraph, and patents for everything 
in Christendom have come into life since that day ! 

That three millions of foreigners have arrived amongst 
us — some three millions, who displaced some two millions 
of Americans, who were forced to gain their living by 
their wits — since that day ! 

That we have imported some three million tons of 
rails to employ the workmen in building the roads 
— the iron in the hold, the passengers between decks, — 
the transportation of which (together with Irish famine 
and Mexican war in 1847, California in 1849, navi- 
gation laws in 1851, Australia and Gruano in 1852,) 
has given a startling impetus to the shipbuilders of 
New-England and the mechanics in their various trades 
employed in this way, at the same time that the 
railways, canals, factories, and palaces were being 
completed, creating a great demand for labor ; hence 
that heavy staple of a nation's wealth has become as 
much inflated as the works which laborers' hands 
have completed, since that day ! 

Gilded churches for gilt-edged sermons, aristocra- 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

tic colleges and institutes for aristocratic children of 
aristocratic parents, who live in aristocratic avenues, 
and aristocratic cities, have been brought upon the 
scene, since that day ! 

And to sum up in a word, all this astonishing pro- 
gress, in everything, and everybody, could not have 
been made, unless finance had been reduced to as 
much of a clipper science and a clipper system as 
the clipper ship, the clipper railway, the clipper fac- 
tory, the clipper church, the clipper government, the 
clipper merchant, and the clipper banker, since that 
day ! the memorable mile-stone year of eighteen hun- 
dred and thirty-seven ! 

The brandy of bubbling speculation has stupefied 
our reason, and delirium tremens has overtaken the 
nation ! 

Like a balloon allowed to expand too far, its ex- 
plosion brings from the clouds to the ground the dar- 
ing aeronaut ! 

Like a ship under full sail, the compass of sound sense 
gone, and no officer in command, no wonder the ship 
went upon the rocks ! 

New- York was the locomotive of these United States ; 
Wall street was the steam ; twenty miles an hour — thirty 
— forty — and we were ambitious to make it fifty, when 
Bennett said, " Look out for the engine while the bell 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

rings I" Stop her ! — ease her ! — half speed ! — and off 
the track she went; smashing cars, killing passengers, 
and creating almost universal calamity ! 

Everybody has gone joint-stock mad ! The man who 
owed a hundred thousand dollars imagined himself worth 
half a million ; and the unreflecting outsider pointed to 
him and said, There goes Bubble, the millionaire ! Like 
the Gobelin tapestry of Paris, the mosaic work of Rome, 
every interest was dovetailed into every other interest ; 
so much so that no man could tell when he was conduct- 
ing a legitimate trade ; and yet, notwithstanding all these 
changes since that day, our financial sages are surprised 
that this crisis is grander in its immensity than that petty 
little affair of twenty years ago ! 

Where, I ask, is the analogy with the past ? There is 
none. But I will qualify that assertion : in each case 
the time consumed in bursting the bubble is about the 
same. 

Josephs failed on the 17th of March, 1837, the banks 
followed suit on the 10th of May — -just fifty-three days 
between the Alpha and the Omega ! The Ohio Life and 
Trust Company came down on the 24th of August, 
1857, the banks broke on the 14th of October — just fifty- 
one days between the first and the last ! So much for 
the past ! So much for the opinions which I have been 
advancing during the past twelve months, the expression 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

of which on all occasions led my friends to donbt my 
judgment. 

So much, then, for the past. What of the present ? 
I answer : paralysis ! — stupefaction ! — dread ! The hanks 
suspend — (a legal swindle?) — the merchants tremble — 
Banquo's ghost will not down. A public meeting is 
called in Wall street, to get an independent expression 
of opinion on financial affairs. One clever mind, clev- 
erer than the rest, writes some resolutions ; A, B, C and 
D approve. Two thousand merchants — New- York mer- 
chants — merchants whose minds are wrought up by the 
excitement of the times to intense reflection, assemble 
in the Exchange. 

Mr. A. calls the meeting to order ; Mr. B. takes the 
chair : " All those in favor of these resolutions, say 
Aye ! — Contrary-minded, No !" 'Tis a unanimous 
vote ! 

Mr. C. makes a speech — " Owing to the peculiar for- 
mation of this building, it is well known that my voice 
cannot penetrate thirty feet from where I now stand — 
therefore I will only say that the banks are right — and 
in our afflictions we must be kind to one another !" 
(Cheers from the right.) 

Mr. D. immediately moves an adjournment. "All 
those in favor say Aye ! — Contrary-minded, No !" — 'Tis 
a vote ! 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

" Gentlemen, this meeting is now adjourned," and more 
than nine-tenths of the audience leave the Exchange 
without having heard a single word of the resolutions ! 
And yet these same resolutions go to the press, from the 
press to the country, from the country to the Old World, 
as the intelligent independent opinions of the New- York 
merchants on our present financial affairs ! 

I have carefully read the resolutions, the essence of 
which, to my mind, seems to he, that " whereas we are 
a free and independent people, we freely and independ- 
ently declare ourselves bankrupts" 

The position of matters to-day is, the illegal suspen- 
sion of the hanks, and the approval of the measure by 
the merchants. ' 

The judges applaud, and by their decision have made 
themselves famous. This is their judgment : " One 
murder makes a villain — millions a hero /" Three 
cheers for the progress of morality, and a strong, able- 
bodied, athletic groan for the judges ! 

This "extra-judicial opinion" justifies the man who owes 
a penny, and cannot pay, to balance off his account ; 
for, certainly, what is a virtue in the corporation can- 
not be a crime in the individual. The debtor may now 
say to the creditor, under the new banking decision : 
" My dear fellow, I am short ; in fact I may tell you 
in confidence that I am burst, — expect to pay every 



INTRODUCTION. XV 

red ; and, in consideration of our long friendship, I will 
ask you to call upon me, if you have the time, this 
day two years, and, should I be in funds, I will he 
most happy to pass the amount to your credit!" 

Carlyle criticises : he never creates. If Carlyle takes 
such liberties, why should I be censured for following 
his example ? However, if the reader will wade through 
the following letters — some financial, some commercial, 
some political, and some descriptive — noting when and 
where they were written, I will promise to give the 
best remedy I can discover for the disease which I have 
described. 

To my mind, the fog still enshrouds the icebergs. 

The earthquake has only loosened the plaster on the 
ceiling — the walls still stand. 

The burning lava has not commenced to run down 
the mountain towards the village on the plain. 

The rattling of the thunder is not the thunderbolt. 

Therefore, in a concluding chapter, I propose to show 
that we have not seen the end of the beginning, much 
more the beginning of the end. 

St. Nicholas Hotel, 

New-York, Nov. 1st, 1857. 



YOUNG AMERICA 



IN 



WALL STREET. 



ARTICLE I. 

Politics — Finance — Bullion in National Banks — Austria — Treaty of Paris 
— Bolgrad the Little not Bolgrad the Great — Reasons for expect- 
ing a Crisis in financial affairs — Panic comes round every ten 
years — Bank of England less Bullion than before discovery of 
Australian and California Mines — Rate of Interest — Two and a 
half to seven per cent. — Bank of France as strong as Bank of Eng- 
land—Why a crisis may be expected in France — Pereire and the 
Credit Mobilier — Russian Railways — Iron produced in England- 
Silver question — Opium heretofore prevented the drain — Exports and 
Imports to India and China — Tea — Silk — Balance of Trade against 
the West — Sixty-five millions Silver exported in sixteen months — 
Hamburg Bank declares a Gold Standard^ Credit Maritime — 
French Merchants buying New-York Clippers — The gloomy aspect 
of the financial sky. 

Grand Hotel Du Louvre, 
Rue de Rivoli, Paris, Nov. 13, 1856. 
My Dear Sir : — There's no better way of dissipating 
the ennui of Parisian life, than an occasional use of the 



18 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 



pen ; for journalizing stimulates reflection, and there^s 
real pleasure in the knowledge that one is doing any- 
thing to expand the mind, or add to the book of 
knowledge. The morning has gone in discussing the 
causes of the political mist that fairly chills the at- 
mosphere in all the capitals of Europe ; for the New- 
York Herald and I propose to spend the evening in 
following out the train of thought which such reflec- 
tions have given rise to, and try and meet my pro- 
missory note due for the December number of the 
Magazine. 

So from politics let us turn to finance — simply re- 
marking that just now they are most intimately asso- 
. ciated — like England and America — a Siamese Twins 
connection ; cut the band and thrones will tumble ! 
The stock exchange is more powerful than the mon- 
arch — and the treasury has always had a wonderful 
influence on the cabinet. At present the peace and 
happiness of Europe depend somewhat upon the 
amount of bullion in the National Banks ! Austria has 
forty millions of dollars in her vaults, yet she does 
not resume specie payment. France has but thirty 
millions , yet she still lives in spite of croakers, by 
buying gold at a loss (?), which by the way I don't 
believe — for if I understand the exchanges between the 
countries, France makes money by every operation; 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



19 



while England, who rules them all, shows but forty- 
seven millions of dollars in the bullion department of 
her distinguished protege — a lesser sum than she has 
seen for the last nine years. And so long as the Bank 
of England persists in keeping the price at which she 
purchases gold at ^£3 lis. 10±d, or at the par of ex- 
change $18 69, there is little chance of her getting hold 
of the continued arrivals by transatlantic steamers or Aus- 
tralian clippers ; for Continental buyers are more liberal, 
and give better prices. Exchange brokers must be 
accumulating fortunes, when such heaps of treasure are 
passed from hand to hand ! 

Having taken the position that disordered politics 
embarrass finance, you may ask, why ? Simply by 
creating distrust, where everything is so uncertain. 
A want of confidence is sure to give birth to rumors — 
and rumors paralyze the money market. And since 
Fox & Henderson came down other names are mentioned. 
Had the treaty of Paris been written as carefully as 
its importance demanded, no confusion would have 
arisen. But now serious disputes are talked of. The 
great Powers differ. What then ? Why, Russia says ; 
" Another conference, of course. Let us see ' who has 
broken the^ treaty.' Austria, by arming the disputed 
1 Provinces?' or England, by sending her fleet into the 
Euxine ? For what have I done ? Bolgrad the Little, 



20 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

on the banks of the Danube, don't mean Bolgrad the 
Great, a few miles distant from the river." England 
disdains to answer; and Austria does what England 
wishes, and both reply by pointing to the sword ! 
France appears indifferent, but is not ; for her every 
action shows she sides with Russia ! Napoleon must 
do one of two things : break the alliance with Eng- 
land (where lies his great strength), and get up a war 
some distance from his frontier, farther off than Italy ; 
or prepare for shooting down a few thousands of en- 
thusiastic workmen who will be crying for bread. For 
'tis plain that the seed of Revolution is sown broad- 
cast ! Can you doubt which he will choose ? Has 
loss of life anything to do with an Emperor's pleasure ? 
Besides, Napoleon must find amusement for his army ! 
To say the least, the future is somewhat misty, and 
that, in part, is why the financial world is trembling. 
Added to this is the fact that 1857 is the year — the 
one in ten — when a crisis purifies trade a?id commerce, 
and the machinery gets oiled, only to be clogged some 
ten years later ! Am I dreaming, or stating facts ? 
Read McCulloch, and the history of the Bank of Eng- 
land. I wish I had a copy — but must trust to mem- 
ory. Some sixty years ago, when Bonaparte threatened 
England with invasion, the habit commenced : — in 1797, 
when William Pitt issued the order in council for the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 21 

Bank to suspend specie payments for four months, to 
arrest the general bankruptcy of the kingdom. Only for 
four months. But some twenty-two years went round 
before it opened its vaults again ! — not till 1819, under 
Sir Robert Peel's bill, who said that there was one 
thing more stubborn than figures— facts ! So let us 
deal with them, and recall some old associations. 

The panic of 1825-27 ivas in your day, and 1 
was too young to remember even '37, ivhen the credit 
of London itself was shaken to its centre, bringing' 
down the W.'s and making the B.'s tremble. But ten 
years after I was in the counting-house, and remem- 
ber well how leading bankers, both in London and 
Liverpool, found a friend in the Bank of England 
in '47. The finances of the kingdom were in a bad 
way at the close of the last century ; and history 
says that every ten years the lamp goes out. Do you 
not see that the elements are again concentrating ? 
Or is it monomania ivith me ? If I take a sombre 
look at affairs to-day, donH write me down a Dog- 
berry. I assure you I have no scrip to sell — no 
notes to meet — never belonged to the Brokers' Board, 
— consider the Stock Exchange forbidden ground, and 
would not be an alarmist : so don't accuse me of 
raising the mad-dog cry ! All former panics came 
before California and Australia opened their vaults. 



22 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



And what a strange anomaly ? "When twenty millions 
of dollars were all we could get from the Ural Moun- 
tains, the Bank of England showed one hundred mill- 
ion dollars of bullion : now, when these two countries 
turn out an an annual production of one hundred and 
twenty-five million dollars, there's less than fifty mil- 
lions in last week's balance, and the drain grows 
more alarming daily. The Bank Directors are in a 
quandary. "What is to be done ? say they. 

For over a century the rate of interest never varied but 
one per cent. ; never, before 1835, below four per cent., and 
never above five. But during the last twenty years it has 
ranged all the way from two-and-a-half to eight per 
cent. ; (this last point only for a few months in 1848.) 
Now the Court have made it seven per cent. But still 
the gold and silver leave the kingdom ! Bankers, ship- 
owners, merchants and manufacturers show discontent- — 
each distrusts the other — and all fear the next action of 
the Bank. The Directors have had, several meetings since 
last balance day, and great uncertainty prevails. In 
such a state of matters, would you be surprised to see 
them raise the rate to ten per cent. ? The commerce of 
England waits impatiently to know what next is to 
be done. Foreign securities, and even local stocks, 
are choking for a decision, and England puts it all 
on France. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL- STREET. 23 

I certainly don't see but that the French Bank shows 
as good a balance as the English. "What are the causes 
of the crisis in France ? These are some of them. Five 
hundred millions of dollars for the late war paid or to 
be provided for ! (England is the only nation that un- 
derstands the art of raising the wind, and growing richer 
and richer the more she owes to her own people and 
trusts other nations.) A deficient harvest, the almost 
total loss of the silk crop, while the grapes are bad, and 
the inundations were disastrous — all these ; together with 
the natural impetus given to credit by the Mo. Biddle, of 
France, M. Isaac Pereire, the most wonderful magician 
of the century, the manager of the Credit Mobilier — a 
financier who bids fair to take away the hard-earned 
laurels of a Rothschild, a Baring, a Steiglitz, and a Hope. 
For has he not beaten all these rulers of the world in the 
late Russian railway grants ? Yes, he has the contract, 
and is willing to give them a share ; " only think of it" — 
twenty-five hundred miles, a single track, to be built in 
ten years, at a cost of only two hundred millions of dol- 
lars ! But what of that ? the government guarantees five 
per cent., and the concession is for almost a hundred years ! 
Two hundred and fifty thousand tons of railway iron "ere 
wanted ; but that is nothing. Hitherto America required 
as much for an annual supply, simply to relay her worn- 
out plant for her twenty-five thousand miles of rail. 
Russia produces but 250,000 tons a year, and few of her 



24 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



serfs possess iron implements for agriculture. If she wants 
England to give her rail she must change her tariff, for 
now it is prohibitory. England turns out 4,000,000 of 
pig and 2,000,000 of bar iron annually, of which 300,000 
tons is of the former, and one-half the latter finds a 
foreign market. But I am wandering from Monsieur 
Pereire and the Credit Mobilier. Really it is a gigantic 
institution ! With only a capital of twelve million dol- 
lars, it can increase by charter ten to one, something like 
the New- York banks, and as much more on the strength 
of its deposits, giving a capital equal to the public debt 
of the Hon. East India Company — say two hundred and 
eighty millions of dollars ! England fears its power, and 
every day her journals caution capitalists against dabbling 
in foreign speculations. But who can say but what 
Pereire is hand and glove with all the bankers of England 
and the Continent, great and small ? For the ramifi- 
cations and operations of the financial system are as 
widely diffused and as closely connected throughout the 
commercial world, as the nerves and veins are over the 
animal body. No matter whether it is a Russian railway 
or the sugar crop, the building of this hotel, or the estab- 
lishing of a steam fleet, beautifying the city of Paris, or 
buying up the Spanish papers : Pereire is equal to it all. 

This terrible engine for inflating credits, added to the 
causes which I mentioned, has occasioned the crisis 
which is being worked out in France. But perhaps the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 25 

most serious cause is the political distrust that makes 
the people hoard their earnings. The building up of 
the city is, in my opinion, a financial and commercial, 
as well as architectural failure. The population has 
not increased with the boundaries of the city. Winter is 
approaching ; the workmen are cold, and bread at ten 
sous ! Everything helps to hasten the crisis. Silver 
comes into the country to-day, is coined, and the five- 
franc pieces are melted down, and shipped to India 
on the morrow. Napoleon tries to stop it, but he 
don't know how. Who does ? Can you spare a par- 
agraph on the silver question ? Let us then leave 
France to squeeze through the panic, if she can, and 
return to England. 

In my letters from China and India, at the com- 
mencement of the year, which you did me the honor 
to edit and publish, I alluded to the fact, that the 
importation of opium into China saved the Western 
world from sending out every year some forty millions 
of dollars, to help make up the indebtedness to China. 
What are the facts ? Let me make a few figures. 
Take India first : England has managed that country 
better than China, for her exports average forty million 
dollars. In '48, British exports to India were twenty-five 
million dollars. But last year they reached some fifty- 
two millions, notwithstanding which the imports are 

2 



26 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

against her. In 1855, India gave to England some 
sixty-three millions of produce, — showing a balance of 
eleven millions to be paid in silver ! Now in China 
the balance is far greater. China wants nothing from 
the West. I may be wrong ; but my observations, 
when there some months since, go to show an enor- 
mous indebtedness to the native from the foreign mer- 
chant. And when domestics came in, it was some- 
thing like this: "I owe you money for tea and silk, 
and have done so for years ; now you must take 
these goods or nothing." The Chinaman no longer 
hesitates ; and this is our famous export trade ! Then, 
while the exports to India are on the increase, China 
gives no real signs of life. Fourteen years ago Eng- 
land sent out as much as now. Just after the war 
English exports to Canton were only some five mil- 
lion dollars ! They are no more now, taking the last 
two years for a guide, while imports extend from 
year to year. 

Take Tea. Sixteen years since, only 31,000,000 lbs. 
were imported ; ten years after, it reached 70,000,000 
lbs., and last year the tables show an import of 
91,000,000 lbs., and the United States annually 
40,000,000 lbs. — all of which, under the documentary 
bill sytem, is paid for through England ! Silk also 
comes over more freely than formerly. Eight years ago, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET* 27 

in 1848, England got but 17,000 bales. Now, last 
year she took 50,000, and this year something more, 

Add these two articles up, and there is a sum of 
$43,000,000 for imports ! And what is there to off- 
set it ? Why only the paltry sum of some six or 
seven millions of dollars exports ! The balance of 
course must go out in silver, for gold is not current 
in India, and the Chinese don't like it. Here then 
is some $47,000,000 per year against England, Ex- 
penses may reduce it some, but not much. No 
wonder then that every overland mail takes out some 
three million dollars ; making a fearful sum at the 
end of the year ! Thus far twenty-one steamers have 
left Southampton, one every fortnight, since January 
1856, and the export list shows " Treasure, sixty-jive 
millions of dollars /"—a good thing for the P. & O. 
One per cent, would give them a freight of over half 
a million. No more of this. 

Have I encroached too far upon your space ? I 
will only stop to remark : That the Hamburg Bank, 
after battling with a silver ore for the last two hun- 
dred years, has decided on a gold standard. That 
one hundred million dollars are wanted to finish the 
net-work of railways in Austria and Grermany. That 
the Credit Maritime of France have just received an 
order from Russia to build sixty steamers, to compose 



28 YOTTNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

the Black Sea fleet ! That France also is buying some 
of our transport clippers for the India trade, — the 
" Ocean Herald " and " Queen of Clippers " of N. Y., 
both over two thousand tons — the former bringing 
about $65,000 the latter $70,000, cash. That Eng- 
land and France will require all our surplus bread- 
stuffs — for they get none from Russia since the war. 
In 1853, England alone received some four-and-a- 
half millions of quarters from the Euxine ; now, Rus- 
sia requires it all. And to conclude, I think, upon 
the whole, the financial sky all over the world {why 
should I except America ?) is somewhat clouded, and 
will be, so long as the merchant who makes $10,000 
spends $20,000, and tells his friend in confidence his 
wonderful gains, but forgets to mention his losses ! 
The hour is late, and I have my French lesson before 
me, so I bid good night to finance. 



ARTICLE II. 

Australian Treasure Ships — $8,000,000 in one day — " Sick Man" no better 
— Disease chronic — Gold displaces Silver on the Continent — China 
wants nothing from us — Exportation a forced process — Silver Produc- 
tion — Continental States refuse Gold Standard — Gold Production — 
Interest at Bank of England — Money wanted by needy borrowers — 
Crimean War — Rothschild still buying Bullion for the Bank of 
France — England has not escaped the Panic — Bank issues One 
Pound Notes when in a tight place — Former Panics — Peel's Cur- 
rency Bill of 1844 — British Exports then compared with now — Ex- 
ports this year — Statistics of Board of Trade — French Commerce — 
Belgium — Shaving rates of Interest — Difference between Panic of 1847 
and the one expected this year — The more Commerce increases, the 
more we have to pay for money — History of Bank of England — Joint- 
Stock Banks and Private Bankers — Royal British and Tipperary 
Banks — Strahan, Paul, Bates & Co. — Commercial stimulants — Eng- 
land, Holland, and Spain — Steam Engine — Discovery of Gold — 
Facilities of the Joint-Stock Banks — Englishman's word as good 
as his Bond — National Debt — America and Australia — Telegraphic 
Cable — Mr. Field's Prophecy. 

Paris, France, January 1, 1857. 
My Dear Sir : — Opportune arrivals of Australian 
treasure ships, more confidence in the stability of the 
French alliance, and comparative quiet among the des- 



30 



YOUNG .AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



potic powers, are, no doubt, the principal causes of the 
present firmer tone of the money market. London in- 
sists upon it that the panic is past, and Paris has a 
great respect for the opinion of her distinguished friend. 
Certainly, on the face affairs look better — but it is only 
on the face. The sick man may be better, but he is 
far from well. The disease is chronic, and the reme- 
dy — the arrival of $8,000,000 of gold at Liverpool 
between the rising and setting of a sun, an amount 
unprecedented in a single day — only touches the outer 
man, leaving the malady to gnaw away at the vitals 
of commerce for awhile, and then burst out again 
with more violence than before ! 

When I wrote you, I endeavored to show that how- 
ever bad matters were at home, they were far worse 
abroad, and that a gold drain to, was nothing more 
than a silver drain from, the Continent. So long as 
we continue to import Oriental luxuries, we must con- 
tinue to put our hands in our pockets, and established 
European coins must continue to be thrown into the 
melting-pot to supply the ravenous demand for silver 
which such importations are sure to create, and that 
silver must be replaced with Californian and Australian 
gold. Am I not right ? The disease is therefore 
chronic, and the temporary relief afforded may only 
deceive the public, and take the issue away from the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 31 

East, where it belongs, and solve the problem nearer 
home. China wants nothing from the West. That 
wonderful land is only a gigantic Japan ; the Emperor 
and his cabinet to-day, I have no doubt, would give 
the world many hundred millions if every European 
would quit the soil. But England forced the trade 
fourteen years ago, and the Chinese retaliate by sell- 
ing her goods at high prices, and taking nothing but 
hard cash for payment. 

Every mail, regularly twice a month, the treasure 
goes away. To-day the amount by the overland is 
$4,000,000, the next the same, and most likely so on 
during 1857— about $60,000,000 or $70,000,000 in a 
twelvemonth ! But even at this rate, it will take many 
years to exhaust it ; for we continue to extract out of 
the old mines some $40,000,000 per annum — and the 
quantity has been increasing for centuries ; and when 
the coin grows scarce, high prices will tempt the owner 
of silver plate to take the gold instead. It is said 
that France alone has some $600,000,000 in silver, 
the collection of ages ; and all the Continent — Ger- 
many, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, as well as minor 
States — have refused aught but a silver standard — 
Hamburg alone having broken the chain, and at last 
followed the example of England and America. They 
must all come to it, sooner or later; for the pouring 



32 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



in of some $600,000,000 in gold since old Sutler saw 
the dust on his mill-wheel, in 1848, is sure to revo- 
lutionize rusty and time-worn habits. Since Louis 
Philippe made way for Louis Napoleon- 
California bas turned out, up to 1856 $321,000,000 

Australia 208,000,000 

Add for both El Dorados for 1856 100,000,000 

— Making, in less than eight years, more gold than 
France collected in silver in as many hundred ! 

The rate at the Bank of England for "gilt-edged" 
paper may be half per cent, less to-day ; but the Direc- 
tors never made so false a move as when they dropped 
it to six and a half until there is more certainty for 
the future ; for exchange on all sides is against Eng- 
land, and Continental money-seekers are on the in- 
crease. 

Operations now are giants to what they were only 
a quarter of a century since; for, while England 
and America have macadamized their soil with rail- 
ways, Europe and Asia have only inserted the wedge. 
In round numbers — why not put down the figures ? 
there^s no harm if it amounts to a few millions more 
or less. Governments, corporations, and financial lead- 
ers are putting out their baits ; and, from what I 
note, I feel authorized in issuing the following adver- 
tisement : — 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 33 

Money Wanted — For Railway and other Enter- 
prises, during the coming year. 

Commence with England — Branch Railways and 
New Joint-Stock Companies, under the Limited 
Liability Act— About 410 Prospectuses issued $50,000,000 

France calls for 40,000,000 officially, for Railways, 
Branches from the Trunk Lines, (which will serve to 
take away her 10 and 15 per cent, dividends, as 
they have always done in railway enterprise,) and 
will want as much more for other projects — say 
for France 80,000,000 

Russia, at least, for Railways and Steamships, must 

commence with 60,000,000 

Austria, for her Railways, &c 50,000,000 

And take America, India, Australia, and other coun- 
tries — you should give them 80,000,000 

$320,000,000 

Here you have some $320,000,000 to furnish during 
the twelve months ending 1st January, 1858 ! But 
you answer: "That is nothing; the world dropped 
about as much each year of the war upon the Crimea." 
Admit it ; but war spreads disaster ; and its com- 
merce is as unprofitable as it is immoral. One na- 
tion's happiness is marked by the misery of the other. 
The one amount is sunk, the other to be raised. 
Taking, then, these sums for great national enter- 

2* 



34 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

prises, and then adding what is wanted to carry on 
the legitimate trade of the world, in its -present in- 
flated state, money in 1857 will command at least 
twice as much as it did five years before. I much 
doubt if the rate in Threadneedle-street drop below 
four per cent, for many years, and during the coming 
year certainly not less than five. The French Bank 
has paid away during the last sixteen months enor- 
mous sums for gold ; and now, it is said, that Roths- 
child has contracted to supply her with $40,000,000 
during the next year. At this rate the Bank of Eng- 
land will find it difficult to lower her rate of inter- 
est, without losing her bullion, for she never likes to 
have less than $70,000,000 in the vault, and now it 
is only $50,000,000. 

England may have escaped a panic, but I don't be- 
lieve it notwithstanding. "Whenever there is a bona 
fide crisis in England, it is thrown upon the Bank as 
the chief cause. The old lady gets crowded, Govern- 
ment helps her, and then all goes smoothly on until 
something new comes up, and she is as weak as the 
most rotten of her securities. In 1822, she avoided a 
panic by issuing $20,000,000 in small notes, but the 
Directors forgot that sudden contraction produced just 
what they tried to avoid ; for it was only three years 
later when they called in the same notes that caused 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 35 

that terrible panic of 1825. Instead of suspending 
cash payments as before, they again issued small notes, 
some $23,000,000, which averted a national bankruptcy. 
In December, 1825, its circulation was $98,000,000, and 
during the next three months it reached $122,000,000 ; 
but before the end of the year, it fell off to the old figure ; 
and it was then that the one, and all under five, pound 
notes were abolished, and have never been since used 
in England. 

Again, during that memorable period, 1836 to 1840, 
the sudden contraction of bank-notes, it is said, created 
the disaster. In 1839, the notes only amounted to 
$76,000,000 ; but after the panic occurred, as usual, 
they tried once more the old remedy, and issued some 
$20,000,000 new notes, so that in 1843, about the time 
that Mr. Miller was to take his celestial flight, their 
notes showed the sum of $96,000,000. (xo back, if 
you like, to earlier dates, you find it much the same. 
The course of the bank has been to arrest panic by 
the issue of more notes. Was not the crisis arrested in 
1793, (when George and Napoleon got mad with each 
other and went to war,) by issuing the exchequer 
bills ? Four years later she had no gold, and out 
came one pound notes again, with suspension of specie 
payments. In 1810, the same course was pursued ; then 
the notes reached the enormous sum of $240,000,000 ! 



36 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



Well, when contraction came, it occasioned a smash ; 
and the resuming of cash payments, in 1819, brought 
the English people almost to rebellion, — money was so 
scarce and the times so hard. 

But to return to 1843. The times required some 
new legislation, and Peel was at hand with his Cur- 
rency Bill of 1844, under which the councils of the 
Bank of England are now governed. That Act prohibits 
expansion. Hence the difference. With §50,000,000 
bullion, she can only discount $150,000,000 ; while 
New- York, with only $10,000,000 specie, has a dis- 
count line of nearly $100,000,000 ! Thus in the former 
case it is only three to one, in the latter ten to one. 
Such being the fact, many of the London financiers are 
crying for a change ; and sound enough is the argu- 
ment, that bank facilities sufficient for England's com- 
merce in 1844 are by no means adapted to England's 
commerce in 1857. Why, look at the fact. Previous 
to that time, say 1841, British exports did not ex- 
ceed $250,000,000, and they only reached $10,000,000 
more in 1845, but sprang ahead, under free trade, to 
$350,000,000 in 1850; 400,000,000 in 1852; and in 
1853, during the Australian panic year, the last of the 
peace, they reached $494,000,000 ! But during the war 
they fell off again,— in 1854 by some $8,000,000; and in 
1855 the entire export was but $478,000,000 — showing 
how war operates upon commerce. For this year, the year 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 37 

of peace and plenty, Old England will out-herod Herod. 
The Report of the Board of Trade is most instructive, 
as showing the increasing commerce of the Merchant 
Island or, in Napoleon's words, the " nation of shop- 
keepers." 

During the first ten months of the present year, 
British exports amount to as much as the entire ex- 
ports of last year. Already the tables show four hun- 
dred and seventy-seven millions to the 1st of Novem- 
'ber, 1856 ; an increase of nearly 22 per cent, over 
1855. Again, look at the imports ; seven hundred and 
sixty-two millions in 1854, forty-four millions less the 
following year ! The decrease was from foreign lands 
(not colonies), half of which was for cereals. 

The commerce of France has also received a powerful 
impetus. I note her imports and exports are returned 
in one sum. In 1854 the tables show a trade of 
seven hundred and fifty millions, — five millions less in 
1853, and only six hundred millions in 1852 ; while 
last year (1855) the exports and imports of France 
amounted to eight hundred and sixty-five millions of 
dollars, — for a population of thirty-six millions of peo- 
ple ! Even little Belgium, during 1855, exported one 
hundred and forty millions, and imported five millions 
less. 

The extraordinary increase in the commerce of the 



38 , YOUNG AMERICA. IN WALL-STREET. 

world must create a pro rata demand for money to 
carry on that commerce ; and, from the figures which 
I have given, it will he seen that we require more 
extensive hanking facilities now than when the Act 
was passed, and may naturally enough look for a 
higher rate of interest. "When the Bank Court placard 
7 per cent., many shavers in England squeeze out 12. 
The Committee of the House of Lords reported in 
1847 that the panic of that year was caused hy the 
restrictive measures of 1844. But then the losses were 
from one Englishman to his brother merchant; now 
it would be a loss to the nation, for the balance of 
trade is so against her. England has credit enough, 
hut not currency. If she would issue one-pound 
notes again, she would at once release millions of 
sovereigns ; for who will cart round gold when he 
can have sound paper ? During the coming parlia- 
mentary session, I think the question of currency 
will be taken up. It certainly requires some healthy 
regulations. Now the Bank of England depresses or 
inflates the money market — pushes all stocks up or 
down, just when she happens to have the fancy. 
Supposing the Manager of the Bank of France gave 
the wink to the Governor of the Bank of England ; or — 
let it go deeper — the Directors were in the secret, 
and they put up the rates, and down the screw — what 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 39 

a nice game they could play with rents and consols, 
private stocks, and American securities ! 

Yes, bullionists and finance writers lay all changes 
in the money market at the door of the Bank of 
England. But what does she care ? — her policy is to 
make money ; and if she brings on a crisis, how 
simple it is for her to get an order in council to 
suspend specie payment ! She has done it before, she 
can do it now ! How strange it is that her private 
securities, now that money is high, roll up so ! Why, 
in '51 and '52, when money was 2 and 2J per cent., 
private securities were only from fifty to sixty-five 
millions ; but during the last year and a half, when 
the rate has been backing and filling between five 
and seven per cent., the private securities come up 
to ninety-five, to one hundred and five, millions ! But 
the exports then were only three hundred and fifty 
millions ; now this year they are at the rate of five 
hundred and fifty-five millions ! — showing that the 
more commerce increases, the more we have to pay 
for money. Is it not so ? Hence, I do not think we 
shall get the old rate again for a long time. 

The history of the Bank of England would read 
like a romance, — so many are its thrilling scenes, so 
numerous are its individualities, so gigantic are its 
operations. In times of peril, it holds up great names, 



40 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

and deals out millions as smaller corporations would 
thousands ; but her greatness is of the past — yet her in- 
fluence still shakes the kingdom. Through a dozen 
kingly reigns, private bankers and the Bank of Eng- 
land have managed to rule the financial world, and 
pocket all the banker's profits; but during the last 
quarter of a century a new element has been intro- 
duced, which has given a wonderful impetus to trade, 
and somewhat startled private bankers with the fact 
of their possessing a powerful competitor, that bids 
fair to swallow up all the time-worn names. I allude 
to the joint-stock banks in England, with branches in 
all the colonies. Allowing interest on deposits, giving 
great facility in discounts, and declaring satisfac- 
tory dividends, the joint-stock bank and the private 
banker, so long as they are rivals, cannot be friends. 
"When the one sneeringly alludes to the gigantic swin- 
dies of the Royal British and Tipperary banks, the 
other remembers one Strahan, Paul, Bates & Co. ; so 
each has a piece of the argument for illustration. 

Most interesting is it to trace the stimulants to 
commerce. England first, and Holland, and once Yen- 
ice, and old Spain. The discovery of the North 
American continent was a powerful stimulant. An- 
other, of smaller proportion, the conquest of India. 
Then came that mighty agent, the steam-engine ; af- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 41 

terwards the opening of China ; and then gold in the 
Pacific, gold in the Indian Ocean. The last four 
agents spurred on and pushed, to their working capa- 
city, the acknowledged potency of the joint-stock bank. 
England may, therefore, give that institution some 
credit for the astonishing and unhealthy impetus given 
to her commerce, as shown by the Tables of the Board 
of Trade. Most of the heavy enterprises of the day, 
have been completed by the joint-stock bank. To a 
man of standing, they are not mean in their facilities> 
Overdraw your bank account in State or Wall streets 
for one half-eagle, and a red mark is placed against 
your name. Not so with the joint-stock banks. Let 
a man possess a good name in the commercial world 
for business character and morality, and he may 
check away for thousands — his only collateral, his 
promise to pay, his honesty, and known integrity. 

Show yourself worthy of the confidence of an Eng- 
lishman, and there is nothing he will not do for 
you — your word is his bond. Our bonds, therefore, 
command his money! Really, they are a wonderful 
people! "What other people would submit to paying 
an income tax of sixteen pence in the pound, 
levied in order to meet the expense of a most un- 
profitable war? England's commerce is on the in- 
crease — the nation prospers, and the national debt 



42 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

stands at four thousand* millions of dollars ! How, 
then, must it be with America, who can sleep soundly, 
without national nightmare of mammoth notes to pay ? 
If in thirty years we have caught up with the old 
mother land in commerce, how will it be in 1886 ? 
Shall we not leave her far behind ? England's or- 
thodox policy with her oldest son made America ; her 
surplus and criminal population organized Australia ; 
in all, three Anglo-Saxon nations,— each commercial, 
each financial. But the old man watches with anx- 
ious eye the progress of his precocious boys — the 
elder has already passed him, the other is in sight ! 

Have I made too many figures ? For fear of taxing 
your space, I will rest awhile, although I wanted to 
talk of France and her railways, and of Russia, and 
what she wants to do; but must wait another month, 
and in March more changes may be chronicled ; for 
we are to have another Congress ! What a sarcasm — 
what a commentary on the peace ! I could laugh, but 
the peace of the world disturbed is not a subject for 
merriment. 

Steam across the Atlantic was once the exciting 
topic of the world ; now it is the telegraphic cable. 
Only three hundred and fifty five-thousand-dollar 
shares ! London takes 101 ; Liverpool, 86 ; Glasgow, 
27 ; Manchester, 28 ; other English towns, 10 ; and the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 43 

balance, 88, in America : — one-fifth, or 20 per cent., to 
be paid up ; and Mr. Field tells us that on the 4th 
of July, 1858, England and America — separated on the 
4th of July, 1776 — are again to be united ! Stand 
back, Columbus ! and you, Yespucius, and Ferdinand 
de Soto, retire ! and you, old Miles Standish ! You 
never dreamed that Franklin was to chain the light- 
ning, and that Morse was to extend the chain across 
the surging Atlantic Ocean ! Shakspeare was the only 
man in early times who thought of putting "a girdle 
round the earth in forty minutes !" What food for 
contemplation in the ocean telegraph ! The grain 
market rises in the morning in England, and in the 
afternoon the ships are filling up in the East River. 
Cotton advances 1-4 d. in Liverpool at noon, and in 
New-Orleans, an hour later, thousands of bales change 
hands. 



ARTICLE III. 

Milano the Assassin — Verger kills the Archbishop— Former Murders of 
Prelates — Bourse not affected — Parisian Congress — Russia, England, 
and Austria — Switzerland arming — King of Prussia obstinate — The 
firing of a pistol may any day produce a Revolution in Europe — Spain's 
National Debt — Loan of Mires-— Geo. Hudson — Espartero — O'Donnell 
— Russia's credit undoubted — Cost of late War— Russian Railways- 
Cost of English and French lines — The Barings introduce the project 
in the London market — Austrian Railways — Austria in a bad way — 
France, and statistics of her Railways — Steam Companies — French 
tonnage — Government speculation — Bank of France — French and 
English Funds — Count De Morny — Persia and China — History of 
Herat — Law of nations the will of the strongest — Canton bombarded 
— Yeh says Nay — History of Canton — Outside barbarians — Com- 
merce against morality — Prospects of opening up the country — 
Money market in England tight — Peace in the West — War in the 
East — The resources of the United States — Revenue and Expenditure 
— Imports and Exports — Banking capital — Gold and Silver coinage 
in America — Ditto in India. 

Paris, France, January 17, 1857. 

My Dear Sir : — While Milano was being racked 
to death under tortures that would have damned even 
the Spanish Inquisition, for touching with his bayonet 



46 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

the sacred ribs of the Neapolitan king, # Yerger's deep* 
laid murder was matured. Bomba escaped, "but the 
good Archbishop gave, as the new year opened, his 
last benediction. The one is left to shoot and grind 
down his subjects ; while the other, like his prede- 
cessor on the barricade in the last revolution, met 
his death by violence. Thomas a Becket, in the Se- 
cond Henry's time, met a similar fate, (1170 ;) but 
Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, four centuries later, 
(1569,) was bullet-proof; and now all France is shocked, 
in this third attempt upon a prelate's life, at the suc- 
cess and coolness of the assassin ! The trial takes 
place to-day ; the execution will be known when all 
is over. Had he murdered a cardinal, or even the 
Pope, it would not have moved the Bourse ! The head 
of the Church may fall, but while the Chief of the 
State is at his post, the stock exchange heeds not 
the crime. Since the horrible deed, every despotic 
monarch in Europe feels less secure ; for it may be 
his turn next. The day of the murder, and the next, 
Napoleon did not go to the theatre ! 

The high and mighty potentates have met, and 
parted — but only to meet again. The conference is 
over ; and just nine months from the signing of the 
first treaty, another child is born. All parties are 
doing well They entered Paris with a flourish of 



YOlTNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 47 

trumpets ; they separated in good nature. There was 
trouble at first : Russia asked England, " When her 
fleet was to be withdrawn?" "When Austria moves 
her army," was the cool reply. And, turning to 
Austria, " When are you to evacuate the disputed 
ground ?" "When England turns her back upon the 
Bosphorus." Here, then, was a decided hitch ; but 
at last it was all arranged. Russia takes some hun- 
dreds of square miles of Moldavian territory for Bol- 
grad ; so all are satisfied — each with humbugging the 
other I The surveys are to be made ; the line drawn, 
so that the " sick man" may get rid of his trouble- 
some doctors by the 30th of March. Thus another 
Congress, and perhaps a fourth. Better talk than fight. 
The treaty is patched up, but we have yet to see its 
effects upon the money market. 

Another topic — our brave little sister republic that 
so firmly has held her Alpine home for centuries — Swit- 
zerland, has been arming to meet the invader, and al- 
ready her firmness has won the admiration of the nations. 
As England's titles once included France within her 
realms, so did Prussia claim her right of etiquette 
over Neufchatel ; but the weak and vacillating mon- 
arch made a false step when he tried to bully Switz- 
erland. Frederick William, (Cliquot, as Punch calls 
him), instead of the first Napoleon, is now the Gresler ; 



48 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

but the people of the mountains are still the chil- 
dren of Tell. They "bow to no empty title, and the 
nation moves as one man, to cut down those who 
would harm their Constitution. Therefore, the King of 
Prussia must retire. He must accept the terms or 
fight. If he chooses war, France and England are 
against him ; if he falls back, he makes himself the 
laughing-stock of Europe. Financiers think, with the 
diplomatists, that he will choose the latter — hence, 
the Bourse keeps on the even tenor of its way. 

These two important questions decided, Europe is 
quiet — an almost universal peace. Yes, peace ; but a 
breath of wind, a scratch, the firing of a musket, 
the death of an emperor, ivould set the whole fabric 
in a blaze. Peace, to be sure, but what a peace ! 
The world looks on, and wonders what next. Is 
Europe really volcanic ! Or, do newspaper writers 
croak ? Nous verrons. 

But what of the money market ? You will expect 
by the Baltic your usual monthly digest of a looker- 
on from Paris, and the Magazine shall not be disap- 
pointed ; but to get at the working of the Bourse, I 
have to touch on outside topics, and run a race about 
the world, giving you a salmagundi on all leading 
countries that bear upon European finance. 

Take Spain, once so rich in gold, in agriculture, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 49 

and in commerce — Old Spain, who, notwithstanding 
her poverty and her dotage, owns one of the only two 
profitable colonies in the world. Cuba is a nest-egg, 
and Holland is proud of Java. But what other colo- 
nies pay their mother country? This gallant old land 
is split up in cabals and strifes. Her public debt 
capital of $635,000,000 only yields an annual interest 
of $10,000,000, and that she cannot pay without 
calling for a foreign loan. Last month the French 
banker, M. Mires, outbid the Spanish capitalists, out- 
bid the Rothschilds, and got the $15,000,000 loan at 
forty-two— the par one hundred! So much for Span- 
ish credit. 

Now there's a famine among the poor ; her rail- 
ways don't even declare dividends, although Greo. Hud- 
son is managing them ; and her politics are one thing 
one day, another the next. Espartero fell before O'Don- 
nell, O'Donnell gave way to Narvaez, # and ambitious men 
stand outside the door to take his place. The Q,ueen may 
be the next to lose her power. Spain, geographically, 
is located between Europe and Africa ; and her pres- 
ent condition proves that she is about half-way be- 
. tween civilization and barbarism. So let her go, as, 
save the last loan, she gives little life to finance. 

* While these sheets are passing through the press, we hear of 
the Duke of Valencia's fall. 

3 



50 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

What of Russia? Is she, too, bankrupt? No, by 
no means. England may continue to abuse her, and 
she will continue to advance. Formerly she was all 
war and rapine ; now that she wishes to extend her 
commerce, build railways in her lands, and cover her 
seas with steamers, England calls her a thief and a 
robber, trying to pick the pockets of English capi- 
talists to furnish funds to carry out her enterprises. 
How absurd ! Look at the truth. Her credit, like 
Csesar's wife, is above suspicion. Rothschild, the French- 
man, places it ahead of the United States. During 
the late war, while France added $200,000,000 to her 
funded debt, and England about the same ; while lit- 
tle Sardinia tacked on $20,000,000, half of which 
England guarantees and may have to pay, as is 
usually the case with her war loans ; while Turkey 
is only plunged the deeper in the mud, Russia has 
only increased her debt $60,000,000 ; and, since the 
war, has reduced taxation, provided for an extensive 
coronation, raised new armies, built new fortifications, 
and is ready to march 100,000 men— another Alex- 
ander's army — to the assistance of Persia ! No ; Rus- 
sia's credit is good, and she will build her railways. 
Do you doubt it ? The entire track is but 2,600 
miles : — 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 51 

St. Petersburg to Moscow miles 670 

Kowno Branch , 60 

Moscow to Nijni-Novgorod 280 

Moscow to Theodosia 840 

Little Archangel to Libau * 750 

Total 2,600 

Count de Morny, says the junior Sir Robert Peel, 
(in his late extraordinary speech, that has so offended 
England and Europe, ) is a great speculator, and when 
the Count beat Rothschild, and got the concession for 
Pereire, he knew that the contract was a good one, 
that Russia's credit was A 1, and that when the 
time came, the project would be launched, and as 
much profit made as there was in the Austrian con- 
cession. Notwithstanding cheap land, no government 
expenses, and serf labor, the roads will cost some 
$80,000 per mile ; in France it costs $105,000 ; in 
England $180,000 per mile! The Government guar- 
antee of five per cent., and admission of iron and 
plant free of duty, assist the enterprise. Although 
the Board of Management is located in Paris, the 
President must be a Russian. By-and-by, the Barings 
will introduce the stock into London, and English 
foundries, most likely, will make the iron. As the 
Russian funds held their own all through the war, 
capitalists will not soon forget such security. 



52 YOUNG- AMERICA IN WALL-STREET* 

The Austrian concession went off quick, with im- 
mense profit to the " Credit Mobilier" While her 
public revenue in 1855-6 was but $132,000,000, her 
expenditure was $200,000,000. Francis Joseph is no 
better a financier than his imperial father* Deficit after 
deficit calls for loan after loan, and the National Debt 
accumulates, and the National Bank refuses to resume 
specie payment. The only science Austria knows is 
War ; and, to fill her powder magazines, she has con- 
tracted with the Egyptian Government for all their 
spare saltpetre for five years' time,- — 1,000 tons per 
annum. The reception the Emperor met in Italy was 
as cold as Polar ice. Webster told Hulsemann some 
plain truths about the beggarly House of Hapsburg. 

Since the railway concessions, Russia and Austria 
at peace will not materially affect the money market. 

Now, then, to France. There is little doubt about 
the astonishing progress that France has made in 
commerce, manufactures, and agriculture, under the 
gigantic credit institutions which have sprung up 
during the Empire. Like the building up of new 
Paris- — (2,524 houses torn down and 5,238 erected 
since 1852 ; the population in 1851 was 1,422,065 ; 
last year it was 1,727,419, an increase of 305,354 
in five years) — everything has been forced. Before, 
Frenchmen were all war— now, they talk commerce. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 53 

Why, from 1823 to 1847, the whole length of French 
railway concessions was but 2,940 miles, costing some 
$200,000,000, one-third of which was paid by the 
State ; of which only 1,142 miles were open. Dur- 
ing the next four years they increased to 3,095 
miles, costing, up to 1851, $100,000,000 more. In 
June, 1855, they reached 7,185 miles, and at the end 
of last year, the tables show 10,000 miles, (not all 
finished,) — some 80 per cent, longer than her canals, and 
30 per cent, longer than her public roads. And thus far 
the cost of all has run up to about $600,000,000. The 
income on French railways in 1850 was about $17,500,- 
000, against receipts in 1856 of $54,000,000. On a capi- 
tal of $301,000,000 the State gives a guarantee of $12,- 
000,000 — important aid, which may account in part for 
the late heavy dividends. For the 1,920 miles made by 
the State, they are allowed a share in profits of 3,529 
miles. The fusion of companies has been a good 
move. The original 78 concessions were reduced to 
59, and now they are cut down to 24 ; of which 9 
hold nine-tenths of all. Last year 1,600,000 shares 
paid 16 per cent., and 4 per cent, on 900,000 un- 
finished. France has not had her raihvay panic. 
Her grand trunk lines pay ; but ivait till the branches 
are under ivay ; they will be sure to sap the life-blood 
of the parent tree. As I observed in my remarks for 



54 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

your January Number, the money market must open its 
coffers, for these lines must all be finished. Other en- 
terprises have also been stimulated to expansion by easy 
credits. A company has just been commenced, with a 
capital of $4,000,000, to run steamers, a la Cunard 
and Peninsular and Oriental Companies, wherever they 
have a chance for profit. Shipping companies are 
springing into existence as rapidly here as new corpo- 
rations, under the Limited Liability Act, are in Eng- 
land. In 1850 the coasting tonnage of France was 
hut 2,069,851 tons ; end of 1855, 2,417,430. 

The Government seems to initiate all schemes, and 
lately there is a proposition for a Universal Insurance 
Company — against fire, flood, and famine — maladies, 
death, or accident. In fact, it is to cover every possible 
contingency. A Parisian writer in the Economist re- 
marks, that a Government which has on its hands the 
profession of " engineer, miner, road-maker, professor of 
literature and science, schoolmaster, horse-dealer, farmer, 
grazier, shepherd, teacher of music and singing, thea- 
trical director, trainer of race-horses, instructor of ballet- 
girls, etc., etc., need not be ashamed to open an 
insurance office." With so many irons in the fire, no 
wonder money is in demand. The Bank of France is 
still draining England of her gold. Nothing is done less 
than six per cent., no paper taken over seventy-five days. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 55 

The fall on railway and other shares, since last May, 
arising out of the Bank's refusing to advance on stock, 
is said to he over $100,000,000 ! Still, the stocks 
are treble their intrinsic value. The Bank of France 
requires, say its Managers, more capital. 

Note the changes in the French Bank during the 
last three years ; they show some remarkable facts. 
At the close of 1854, the Bank of France had eighty- 
one millions of bullion, and only seventy millions of 
bills under discount. At the same time in 1855, she had 
only forty-three millions of bullion, and but eighty-four 
millions of dollars under discount. Again, in 1856 (this 
last month's return), with but forty millions of bullion, 
she has bills melted one hundred and ten millions of 
dollars. These few figures tell a strange tale — they 
need no explanation. Those who believe in better 
times on this side, should mark the facts given — not 
my opinions — to show the contrary. England buys 
Russia's funds, but does not invest in the French. 
"Why? Simply because her capitalists have not re- 
covered from the fearful confiscation of 1797. The 
English never forget such things. Old stagers still tell 
of papering their lodgings with " assignats" — at par in 
1789, but five years after down to twenty. Talley- 
rand bid them off, as the leading stock-jobber, followed 
by such speculators as Mirabeau and Danton. People 



56 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

now have more confidence in the Government securities- 
In 1798 there were but 24,796 bondholders ; in 1854, 
785,243 ! The accumulations of the savings banks are 
converted by depositors into rentes — three, four-and-a-half, 
and five per cent. In England, the entire debt is con- 
solidated into a three per cent. Some of the heads of Go- 
vernment have become millionaires by their operations on 
the Bourse. Be Morny (the Emperor's half-brother) could 
not pay his debts in 1848. Now he is said to be the 
richest man in the Empire, and last month settled one 
million on his beautiful bride of eighteen summers, that 
he brought home with him from the Court of Ro- 
manoff. No more to-day on France. 

Persia and China attract attention just now. Have 
you room for another page ? These lands bear upon 
the money market. War costs millions, and they are 
both engaged. From Europe, let us turn to Asia — the 
battle-field has changed. By this time, England and 
Russia may be approaching each other on Persian ground. 
Ferukh Khan, the Persian Envoy, has just arrived amid 
a cloud of retainers and blaze of Oriental display. 
Napoleon receives him like a prince. Russia inspires 
the Shah, and England and Persia are at war ! As in 
the Trojan war, there was a woman in the case — frail, 
fair, and forty. Diplomacy ended in fighting — so He- 
rat fell to avenge She-rail Your pardon, sir. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 57 

A century since, the Affghans took it from the 
Persians, and now the latter have only taken back 
their own. They tried to do it in 1815, when 
Napoleon was under a cloud — and again in 1838, 
when an English squadron in the Persian Gulf fright- 
ened them away, just as the city was about to sur- 
render. The fact is, Herat is the key of Afghanis- 
tan, and Afghanistan is the door of India. No wonder 
England loses color, for India is a jewel in her crown, 
the value of which she will not appreciate till she lose it. 
She has not forgotten, however, that the Honorable East 
India Company spent one hundred millions in that me- 
morable frontier war, and lives innumerable. The will 
of the strongest, is the law of nations ; and if Persia is 
still stubborn, under Russian councils, England must 
send out troops, and the demand for a few hundred 
transports would give a push to the freighting business, 
and the money market would feel the change. 

And China ! — music again, and plenty of it ! 'Tis 
the old story, Alexander the Grreat and the Robber ! 
"When you have read Admiral Seymour's despatches, tell 
me if England has not now a right to the title of Chief 
of all the Filibusters? Canton bombarded will rin<r 
through the States ! — but England has no argument 
this time. Before, in '41, with the Bible in one hand 
and a bill of smuggled opium in the other, she made 

3* 



58 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

her claim. The ten columns of the Gazette may be 
sifted down to a few lines. 

The " Caroline" went over the Falls, but Mr. Webster 
and the elder Baring settled the question. The " Cres- 
cent City" and the "Black Warrior" were targets for 
the Moro's guns, yet we had no war with Spain. Kotza 
was not given up, Austria was humiliated, but it did 
not end in war. But it is far different with the 
lorcha " Arrow." When Sir John Bowring found that 
it was not a British vessel — did not fly the British 
flag — that the colonial register expired on the 27th 
September, and the Chinese boarded her to take 
out the pirates not till the 8th October — when the 
governor found no Englishman was on board, and the 
Viceroy's arguments unanswerable, — he changed his 
tactics — remembered that Canton in 1849 was not 
opened, as agreed in 1842 and '47 — and then de- 
cided to make that the issue. " Open Sesame !" said 
Admiral Seymour. Sesame declined ! Yeh said Nay ! 
And when the Gro vernor- General shut the Canton gate, 
British cannon soon opened it ! Odessa was spared 
but Canton, no ! One was strong — the other weak ! 
Another Sinopean tragedy — almost a Copenhagen ! 

Canton, then, opened by the Portuguese in 1517 ; 
visited by the British ships in 1634 ; her direct trade 
with England dating from 1680, which the East India 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 59 

Company held till the monopoly was abolished in 
1834 — Canton, which boldly met the British in 1842, 
and has been so long the port of Chinese commerce 
— has been bombarded ! The ships in port are ships 
of war — the "outside barbarians" are British soldiers! 
Trade is stopped — and China, with her imperial canals 
— her mammoth highways — her wonderful government 
ruling four hundred millions of people — people whose 
ancestors understood the use of the mariner's compass, 
the art of making gunpowder, glass, and printing — 
when our ancestors were a lot of savages — China is 
to be again humiliated. The prestige England lost in 
Europe last year, and year before, she is likely to re- 
gain in Asia ! 

However, commerce demands it, while morality is 
shocked. Commerce is a great leveler, and, of late 
years, don't associate much with her early friends. 
Throwing right and morals overboard, as they seem to 
have been, there are no two opinions about the com- 
mercial view. A new field is opening — a new era is 
commenced. Ministers at Pekin — foreigners in the in- 
terior — all ports open ! Steamers on the China Rivers 
— and then, perhaps, railways and telegraphs ! Yes, 
perhaps ! but during the period of the war, trade will 
be paralyzed. The Americans won't have the English 
business under the neutral flag, as before ; for already 



60 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

American heads, mistaken for English, have been hung 
on the walls of Canton, and American cannon have 
"battered down some of the forts to revenge it. So 
America is with England, and France will join ! 
Verily, it looks bad for the Brother of the Sun. 

Upon the whole, now is the time to make a strike; 
commerce and morality are battling for the victory. 
I should think that the stopping of the machinery 
would smash some of the engineers, for the China 
trade is a wide spread credit. Break the spokes in 
a wheel, and down comes the wagon — take the shoes 
off and you lame the horse ! So will this Canton 
affair complicate the accounts of the outside barba- 
rians — and hence, Persia and China, as they stand, 
will keep the money market sleepless. 

To come back to England. Money growing tight; 
bank directors change the rate again — now six and a 
half per cent., and only 60 days. Turn again, "Whit- 
tington ! Last year they made seven changes — from 
four and a half, June 26th, to seven per -cent. No- 
vember 13th. The year opened at six, and closed at six 
and a half. In money matters, as England is to the 
Continent and all the world, so is the Bank of Eng- 
land to the other banks in the kingdom. She rules 
the whole. 

Peace in the West, but war in the East — so don't 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 61 

look for an easy money market. The old world is going 
to sleep, while the new world has just woke up. 
With a national debt of only $30,000,000; with an 
income of $77,000,000, to an expenditure $73,000,000, 
($13,000,000 of which cancelled the debt); with an 
estimated manufacturing and agricultural capital of 
$2,600,000,000 ; with an export table of $323,000,000, 
against an import list of $315,000,000, worked upon a 
banking capital of $344,000,000 ; allowed to circulate 
$200,000,000 in bank notes ; with an overflowing treas- 
ury, and unexampled prosperity, — the United States, on 
the then inflated surface, ranks first among the nations. 
The last reports from the several secretaries have as- 
tonished debt-burdened Europe. They don't understand 
how we can manage to live on $48,000,000, fast (the 
last five years average), and when they see a customs 
revenue of $64,000,000, they cry " Free Trade ! " While 
Great Britain takes two-thirds of our entire exports, I 
observe that we take in return from her one-half of our 
entire imports. It seems that the $50,000,000 that 
America loses in trade with Spain, South America, and 
China, she makes up out of Great Britain. I note 
that from 1793 to 1856, our gold and silver coinage 
amounted to $549,341,514; and that the total coin in 
the land is now estimated at $100,000,000. India, 
during only the last twenty years, has coined over 



62 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

$300,000,000. Let the Company coin the mohur again, 
give the Indian a pure coin, no alloy, in gold, and the 
drain in Europe for silver will dry. 

Hoping to be in time for February, and that I have 
not bored you with too many figures, believe me, I am 
most faithfully, 

Yours, &c. 



ARTICLE IV. 

Great Britain's war with China — Defeat of the British Ministry — Debate 
in Parliament — Critical state of affairs at Canton — Feverish condi- 
tion of the Bourse and Stock Exchange — The Bank of England — 
Discussion of the renewal of its Charter — History of its origin and 
increase — Commercial retrospect of the last ten years — The system 
of the Bank of England — The Bank of France — Its leviathan oper- 
ations during the year 1855, and dividend of twenty-five per cent. 
— Proposed increase of its capital — Coinage of the French Mint from 
1795 to 1855— Effect of the receipts of gold from California and 
Australia since 1850 — Analysis of the condition of the Bank of Eng- 
land — And of the Bank of France — London Joint-Stock Banks 
and private bankers — Financial condition of Turkey — Establishment 
of its new National Bank by English capitalists — Prospects of Great 
Britain's victory over China — Advance in teas, silks, and Chinese 
goods, and other effects of the Chinese war. 

Paris, France, March 10, 1857. 

My Dear Sir : — Peace with Persia ! But war, bit- 
ter, relentless, revengeful war, with China ! 

Fehruk Khan, inspired by the Emperor of the French, 
has negotiated a treaty for the Eastern Shah, while 
Sir John Bo wring, the man of many tongues — Eng- 



64 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

land's chief minister east of India — -has embarrassed 
his Grovernment, and jeopardized, not only the heads of 
his countrymen, but the lives and property of every 
European in China ! 

I know not which will startle you the most, the 
sudden and unexpected defeat of the British Ministry, 
or the critical state of the question which caused it. 
Both just at this particular time are the bugbears of 
the money market. 

Lord Palmerston fought like a lion, but all in vain. 
It was a pitiful sight to see the proud old statesman 
at bay, trying to ward off the blow, to stem the tide. 
But the coalition was all-powerful — the plot was well 
organized, and boldly executed ! As the red-hot shot 
of Admiral Seymour carried destruction among the 
houses inside the Canton walls, so the brilliant speeches 
of the opposition went tearing through the ministerial 
ranks ! Warren Hastings, with Burke, and Fox, and 
Sheridan, and Erskine on his track, fared better, three 
generations since, than the British chief at Hong Kong, 
with such experienced debaters as Derby, Gladstone, 
D'Israeli, Cobden, Roebuck, and Lord John Russell, 
against him ! The walls of the English Commons rung 
with eloquence, but the oratorical display was all 
against the Premier. He stood his ground bravely to 
the last, and when the division came, at half-past two 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 65 

o'clock in the morning, the cheers of the Opposition, 
repeated by the populace outside, told the Minister that 
out of the five hundred and ten votes cast, he was in 
a minority of sixteen! England was not prepared for 
it. The Opposition can hardly credit their success, and 
never before has Parliament been in greater confusion 
than since the vote of Monday. " Parliament must be 
dissolved," said the noble Lord on Friday, and he calls 
upon the House to pass the Mutiny Act, and temporary 
supplies, before the appeal to the country, where his 
party feel confident of success. But of China, look at 
the last news. A young friend of mine left Hong Kong 
on the 15th of January, and from him and other 
sources I learn that the state of affairs there is most 
critical. 'Tis war to the teeth, and not with Chris- 
tian weapons. Piracy and poison, incendiarism and 
assassination, are now the Chinese arguments ! 

The British Admiral had lost his foothold in the 
Factory Gardens, and six hundred war junks were be- 
tween his fleet and the open sea ! The Celestial em- 
peror confirms the measures of his minister, and gene- 
ral war is proclaimed against the " outside barbarians," 
whose heads command high prices under royal procla- 
mations ! This time the English are fighting with an 
enraged people, not with a weak government, as in 
1842. Every house in flames widens the breach, 



$6 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

every shot that drops among them only seems to 
madden the people ! When the bakers put the arsenic 
in the bread, who doubts but the plot was all arranged 
to sack the city and massacre all who escaped the 
poison ? This is our latest news ! Is it not, then, 
terrible to contemplate what may now be the position 
of the foreigners in those seas ? What are a handful 
of Europeans against a populous nation? Admit the 
prowess of the West, but how far can it go against 
such fearful odds? The Sepoy regiment which the 
Governor of Singapore has sent away to their assistance, 
has left in dismay at their defenceless position the 
three hundred Europeans in that colony. Having pro- 
tested against it, they are now at the mercy of the 
80,000 Chinese and Malays who have already com- 
menced to show their hostility ! Lord Canning can send 
no troops from India proper, and but a few hundred from 
Ceylon, and the Singapore Sepoys. Sir John Bowring 
must depend upon the mother country for assistance, 
and notwithstanding the Grovermental defeat, five thou- 
sand men have orders to embark from England forth- 
with. I hope they may arrive in time, but I can hut 
have my fears for the safety of the little band who are 
cut off from everything but the ships in the harbor. If 
they escape poisoning, or assassination, they may get 
away from the country in merchant ships, but they 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 67 

must move in time. These are the facts ; are my 
fears well grounded ? Judge for yourself. You can 
well understand that the Chinese war and the fall of 
the Ministry are the leading topics on the Bourse and 
the Stock Exchange. Both crowd out all others ; both 
touch the Funds. Both seem to keep the money market 
in a continual fever, which, coupled with the discussion 
on the Budget, the removal of the bank charter, the 
gossip regarding the great international credit company, 
the continual withdrawal of gold from England, to 
pay for continental silver, which in its turn passes away 
to India — four million dollars by this mail — the daily 
announcement of extensive failures, eight houses alone 
among the Greeks, whose credit has stood so high, 
■ — all tend to unsettle financial affairs, and keep up 
the present stringency — six per cent, within, but twice 
that without, the charmed circle of favored names ! Out- 
side the defeat of Ministers, the dissolution of Parlia- 
ment, and the state of China, the bank charter re- 
newal seems to attract the most attention among 
financial men. 

The Act of 1844 died a natural death during the 
late war, but Ministers were too busy with Russia to 
talk finance ; hence postponement then brings up the 
question now, and Bank Directors ask for another ten 
years' charter. You wish me to talk commerce — I 



68 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

will ; but to do so, I must bring in politics, and 
both introduce finance, and when that subject is in 
hand, one of its important features is the position of 
the National Banks. With your permission, then, as 
I have done in former letters, I propose to take up 
briefly some of the figures of the Bank of England, 
and compare them with those of the Bank of France, 
for these two are the fountains from which all the 
others are fed. The blue-books tell us that some one 
hundred and seventy years ago, when England was at 
war with France, the former wanted funds, and no 
better way was suggested than by establishing a Na- 
tional Bank ; so in 1694 the Act of Incorporation was 
signed, and the Bank of England commenced opera- 
tions upon a paid-up capital of six million dollars, 
every penny of which was lent to the Government, 
for the sum of five hundred thousand dollars per an- 
num ! The original loan was small, but the system 
worked well ; and whenever the Government wanted 
help, new amendments were proposed, and from this 
small beginning the amount lent to Government is now 
seventy-three million dollars, which is its present amount 
of stock ! The Bank was started as a Government 
aid, and not for trading purposes; and as it was at 
first so it is now — the Government's pet. Before the 
Act can be annulled, the above amount must be paid 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STHEET. 69 

into the Bank. Other Acts only give certain privile- 
ges, while the main Act stands as it did in the seven- 
teenth century. Therefore, Peel's Act of 1844, now 
before Parliament, may be renewed for another ten 
years, or not, without affecting its original charter* 
In 1833 one-fourth of the debt or capital was paid 
off, leaving fifty-five million dollars, which is the amount 
you always note in the weekly returns. This one- 
fourth paid by the Government was retained by the 
bank, say eighteen millions, as working capital, but 
then the " Rest " amounts to nearly as much, say 
sixteen-and-a-half millions, which, added to the main 
stock, gives an entire sum of eighty -nine millions, of 
which fifty-five millions were advanced to the Grovern- 
ment, and thirty-four million dollars employed in the 
active business of the bank. All profits are, however, 
divided among the holders of the seventy-two millions 
of stock. 

The Economist has lately published some most in- 
structive Tables, a most important reference for parlia- 
mentary discussion. They run back to 1778, just after 
our Declaration of Independence, when the whole cir- 
culation was but thirty- five millions, and the entire 
deposits were but twenty-five millions, and stop with 
the Bank Act of 1844, when the circulation had 
reached one hundred and five millions, and the deposits 
had touched sixty millions, 



70 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET 



The above returns embrace the period of the twenty- 
two years' suspension (Pennsylvania did better), and 
covering a fluctuation in the stock of bulJion from 
three millions to eighty-one millions. The lowest de- 
preciation of the bank note during the Bank's embar- 
rassment was in 1814, just before Wellington turned 
the day against Bonaparte at "Waterloo, when the note 
dropped twenty- five and one-eighth per cent ! But in 
1821, about the time of Napoleon's death, a resump- 
tion of cash payments brought the bank note to its 
sovereign value, where it has remained, notwithstand- 
ing the fact of the Bank having in the one depart- 
ment but two million two hundred thousand dollars in 
bullion, against an active circulation of one hundred and 
one million, on the 23d of October, 1847 ! Had a few 
of the ten million of depositors called upon the bank, 
they would have had to use their Grovernment letter, 
and shut down the gate, as they did in 1797 ! 

In 1825-'26-'27, the crisis was severest upon bankers ; 
the panic of 1837 covered all classes — prosperity in 
1835— inflation in 1836— crash in 1837. In 1847 the 
merchants were the leading sufferers by the crisis, but 
as is always the case, the general public suffered more 
or less. Ten years since, twenty -tivo firms came down 
in Calcutta alone for about forty million dollars. 
Following out the view expressed in my first letter, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



71 



that these periodical revulsions come round every ten 
years, what is to prevent the rule from including 1857 ? 
Certainly some rather astonishing elements have been 
introduced since the last break doion of credit — among 
other things the aid of steam and telegraphs has 
changed exchanges, and money markets of different na- 
tions are more sympathetic than formerly in conse- 
quence. Railroads, industrial enterprises, and commerce 
have shot ahead as was never known before, and when, 
I ask, has the rate of interest ruled so high on the 
European side as in 1856 ? Wlien has the world 
ever dug out of the mines before, six hundred and 
twenty-five millions gold in seven years ? and yet, when 
has the bullion kept so low throughout the year as in 
the national banks ? At no time since 1842, not omit- 
ting 1847, has the bullion department of the Bank of 
England showed such low figures as the average in 
1856. When before, in five years' time, have finan- 
ciers seen one hundred and seventy-four millions specie 
pass by the pyramids to the East ? Wlien did British 
exports reach nearly six hundred millions previous to 
last year? and when has a nation built twenty-five 
thousand miles of railway within so brief a period 
as has the United States? 

These, then, are some of the changes that have 
come round since the last severe panic in the money 



1% Young America in wall-street* 

market, and older heads than mine are puzzled to un* 
derstand how they are to affect the prosperity of the 
world. 

The doubling of the rate of interest may be ac- 
counted for by the simple fact of the doubling of the 
trade, the navigation, and the commerce of the coun* 
try. Twelve years ago the figures were just half 
what they are to-day ; and twelve years hence, if the 
same ratio goes on with the one, what should prevent 
it from affecting the other — placing the interest at twelve 
per cent, instead of six ? Increase of trade demands 
increase of capital ; and more capital a higher rate 
of interest. 

But to return to the Bank of England. The Direc* 
tors pursue a surer policy than formerly. They regu- 
late the rates of interest and discounts by supply and de- 
mand, and not by circulation; and the true position of 
the Bank may be shown by noting the amount of the 
" public securities," and the bullion in the vaults. Last 
Saturday's return gives a trifle less than one hundred 
million dollars to the former, and about fifty-one million 
to the latter ! 

The Bank of England has eleven branches, each 
bank's notes payable at place of issue, but all met in 
coin at the parent establishment in London. London 
takes two-thirds of the entire issue of notes, leaving but 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 73 

one-third for the provinces — i. e., of a circulation of one 
hundred and five million, seventy are issued in London, 
and thirty-five million at the branch establishments. 
The Bank pays the government, for this privilege of 
issue, about one million dollars per annum, and receives 
a handsome sum in return for managing the public 
debt. The notes are only legal in England — although 
current throughout the Kingdom — the Joint Stock Bank 
Act of 1845 having provided against their legality in Ire- 
land and Scotland. 

From England let us turn to France. Just two 
centuries from the time Queen Elizabeth planted the 
seed of the Indian Empire, and one hundred and four 
years after the establishing of the Bank of England, 
Napoleon founded the Bank of France — commencing in 
1800 with a capital of eighteen million, and a reserve 
fund of two-and-a-half million — in all a working capi- 
tal of about twenty million dollars. Just for a mo- 
ment look at its leviathan operations in 1855. During 
that year the bank discounted nine hundred and forty 
million dollars. No wonder that the fortunate stock- 
holders grew merry over their annual dinner, when the 
President announced a dividend of twenty-five per cent. 
In 1845, the number of branch banks was twenty- 
four, and in 1855, thirty-eight ; but you will best see 
the increase of its operations from 1846 to 1856, by 



74 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

making the figures. Before the fall of the Bourbon 
dynasty, its discounts were but three hundred and 
forty-five million ; under the Napoleonic rule, nine 
hundred and forty, In 1846, only eighty-six million 
were discounted at the branches ; in 1855, five hun- 
dred and forty-nine million. The business of the Bank 
of 1852 was even doubled in 1856. In 1855, one 
hundred million dollars was advanced on railway stock 
alone I 

The French Revolution, it is well known, deadened 
trade. In 1847, the discounts at the bank were some 
two hundred and sixty-five million ; during the two 
succeeding years they were fifty-one million and sixty- 
eight million, respectively — showing the effect of revo- 
lutions on commerce. But the operations of late years 
are of the greatest magnitude. If on so limited a 
capital they have done so much, what might we ex- 
pect if the Government increase it, as has been pro- 
posed, to fifty million ? I doubt whether it will be done, 
for the International scheme, on a capital of twenty- 
five million, seems to meet the sanction of the Empe- 
ror. To change it, would take much time ; 'tis a slow 
process. First the bank makes the movement, then 
Council of State, then Legislative body, afterwards the 
Senate, and then the Government has to make it pub- 
lic, all of which creates delay. A glance at the mint 
operations tells us that — - 



Young America in wall-street. ?5 

From 1795 to 1855, the total amount of gold coined in 

France was » . . . . 4 . . $573,000,000 

Amount coined during same time in silver , 917,000,000 

Total coined $1,490,000,000 

During the last six years, France has coined four 
hundred million in gold ; but only, for the same time, 
forty-five million in silver. 

But to cut it finer, take the past two years. 
While the mint has turned out one hundred and 
eighty-three million of gold coin, she has made hut 
fifteen million in silver. It is estimated that over two 
hundred and fifty million of silver coin has been dis- 
placed by the late gold discoveries ! The Bank of 
France, to-day, has but about half the amount of bul- 
lion which was in her vaults in 1850 — then, eighty-five 
million ; now, forty million. It is worthy of note, that 
of the two hundred million of specie exported to the 
East during the last few years, all the silver went on 
past Ceylon, while the gold stopped this side the Red 
Sea. In round numbers, why not see how this Bank 
stands to-day — what are its obligations ? 

Commence, if you please, with paid-up capital $20,000,000 

Take its deposits, private and public, say 45,000,000 

Now add circulation 120,000,000 

On the one hand you have $185,000,000 



76 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

Against : mercantile paper, bearing always three names, 
a large amount of -which is ibr small tradesmen, under 

100 francs— say for bills discounted, short date $105,000,000 

Government securities, all realizable, save 10,000,000 40.000,000 

Bullion in reserve 40,000,000 

On the other $185,000,000 

Now to make a rough calculation on the Bank of 
England. We may compare the two — 

First take stock entries . . $73,000,000 

Add accumulated reserve, or " rest" 16,500,000 

Making a capital of $89,500,000 

But of this sum, 55,000,000 is Government debt — not 
represented by stock, not transferable, and consequently 
not available; therefore deduct these dead weight se- 
curities 55,000,000 

And you have, as the actual capital of the bank, but 

about $34,500,000 

Deposits, public and private 85,000,000 

Notes in circulation, including bank post bills and money 

orders 105,000,000 

Say $190,000,000 

Add capital, or Government debt, not including reserve 

of $16,500,000 73,000,000 

$263,000,000 
But to get a fair comparison, omit Government debt.... 55,000,000 

$208,000,000 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 77 

And add "rest" or reserve $16,500,000 

You have on the one side liabilities amounting to . . $224,500,000 

Now what has the bank to meet them? 

First : Government securities, including dead weight, 

not available $75,000,000 

Private securities — notes, bills, &c 97,500,000 

Bullion, as shown by last Saturday's return 52,000,000 

$224,500,000 

Therefore, throwing out the Government debt and 
the dead weight securities, the two great hanks stand 
thus : With a capital of thirty-four and a half million, 
the Bank of England has obligations to the public of 
one hundred and ninety million dollars ; while the Bank 
of France, with a capital of twenty million, has obli- 
gations amounting to one hundred and sixty-five mil- 
lion dollars — which, it will be seen, is a trifle in favor 
of the English Bank. 

The capital and obligations of these prominent na- 
tional institutions bear no comparison to the credits of 
London joint-stock banks. They possess a capital of 
fifteen million dollars, on the strength of which they 
have received deposits amounting to one hundred and 
ninety million, against forty million in 1844. Under 
the Act of 1844, there were two hundred and eight 
private bankers, and seventy-two joint-stock banks, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

established. The authorized issues under the Act were 
twenty-five million to the private, and seventeen mil- 
lion to the joint stock. Since 1844, the decline of pri- 
vate bankers shows forty-five as having ceased issuing 
notes, twenty-two of which have stopped payment, 
and nine joint stock, six of which failed. During the 
last ten years, seven hundred and thirty-eight million 
dollars bullion have been imported into England ; yet 
the average amount held by the Bank of England was 
three million four hundred thousand dollars less than 
in 1846, notwithstanding the increase of exports from 
two hundred and eighty-eight millions in 1846, to some 
six hundred millions in 1856 ; while France imported, 
from 1849 to 1855— 

Bullion $512,000,000 

And exported same time 300,000,000 

Leaving in the country." $212,000,000 

And yet the French bank, at the end of 1856, had 
about eighteen million less than in 1846. I wish some 
Adam Smith or Francis Bacon would rise up among 
us, and explain away the inconsistencies and perplexing 
questions of the time. 

Pardon me for making so many figures — another 
day I will be less elaborate. One word on Turkey, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 79 

and a closing remark on China, and I have done. I 
intended to write more at length on the financial 
position of the Ottoman Empire, but I find I have not 
the space. You are aware that the American and 
Grecian bankers have been disgusted by the Sultan's 
having given the concession for the new National 
Bank to English capitalists. Sixty millions is the capi- 
tal, ten of which must be paid down in cash — the bank 
to commence operations six months after the signing of 
the firman. Two thirds of the facilities go to the Gov- 
ernment, the other to agriculture and commerce. Capi- 
talists are sanguine of success, and English contractors 
are swarming through Turkey. 

I must say I was not impressed with Constantinople, 
•when there last May. Any port but that for me 
The growth and decay of the Ottoman power, its 
rise and fall ; now calm, now surging with dissen- 
sions, so strangely historical in Mahomet's career, the 
first Emperor, past the Koran, past Solyman the Great, 
down to the present effeminate monarch — Turkey, in 
all respects, is a most interesting study. Financially, 
she needs support. This bank is just in time. All the 
old coin and worthless paper hawking among the Turks, 
will disappear before the new stamp. The " sick 
man " needs the doctor, for the harem is suffocated 
with the extravagant bills of the women. All the 



80 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



Sultan desires is money — money to keep off the duns 
at his door. 

With a revenue of from $25,000,000 to $30,000,000, say $30,000,000 

See what is done with it : 

Interest on the national debt $5,000,000 

The Sultan — for his harem, his palaces, and his 

women — takes the modest sum of 7,500,000 

Leaving for the military and civil list, say 17,500,000 

$30,000,000 

In fact this last sum is much cut up, for it is 
well-known that the Sultan, for the use of the serag- 
lio, is privileged to issue bonds called " shekims," 
bearing two per cent, interest per month — California 
rates. During the last six months the Sultan has been 
short, and has issued five million dollars of these bonds, 
which you will see adds, for the small item of interest, 
the enormous sum of one million two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars to the State debt. To gain the 
outside sum, put down as revenue, twice that amount 
is levied. It first costs at court fifty per cent, to 
get in the taxes, and then the court alone pockets 
one-third of all that gets into the treasury — a system 
of thieving commencing with the slave, and improv- 
ing in deceit till it reaches the palace. English en- 
ergy and English capital will give new life to decay- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 81 

ing Turkey. As a nation she is strong in her weakness. 
The great powers guarantee her nationality, and will 
fight over over her grave. 

Since writing the foregoing, Parliament has been ac- 
tive on the China question. Lord Palmerston is game 
even yet ; troops and ambassadors are getting away 
with all dispatch. Meanwhile, teas, silks, and all Chi- 
nese " notions" will advance. Firms may suspend, 
and European heads be strung along the Canton walls, 
but, in the end — when England commences in earnest, 
when John Bull is fairly aroused, when " Dear Tea" 
will be the word to return Lord Palmerston's party to 
power, when the fleet walls up the Chinese waters 
and stops the machinery of the Imperial Canal — who 
can doubt as to who will be the victor ? England must 
succeed. Opportunely enough, the Persian affair is put 
to bed, and a fine army is released for China pur- 
poses. The result will stimulate commerce. Human 
life, individual property, and public treasuries, will not 
be spared to shake the Tartar's dynasty. The East 
and the "West must have an understanding. England 
wants more room for trade, and she sees it along 
the China rivers. Those who are familiar with the 
China trade will see at once, how embarrassing all 
this meanwhile will be to Chinese commerce and Eu- 

4* 



82 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

ropean operations. Ships go a begging, for China has 
nothing now for them. Commission houses look wish- 
fully at their cotton goods in the Canton go-downs. By 
this time they know how much the Chinese owe them, 
or rather how much they owe the Chinamen. Ex- 
change operations stand still ; documentary credits are 
useless. The East India Company write home to say, 
that it is killing the opium trade ; and the Parsees, 
who are dropping one hundred and fifty dollars on 
every chest, must fall back on the India banks ; and 
the India banks have had all they want in the 
way of losses, through advances on rice and seeds. 
All wait now for later dates. Other nations, in China, 
are no better placed than the English. The Americans 
cannot manage the entire trade as in 1842. That 
pleasant dream was dispelled when Admiral Armstrong 
shelled the forts ; but now he has withdrawn, on the 
clause in Yeh's letter, to the Rev. Peter Parker, saying 
" There's no cause of strife between us ;" but no 
apology was given.' The French and Americans in- 
directly assist the English ; but their nations are not 
so decided what to do. Such is the position of mat- 
ters in the East ; so, between this China question, the 
dissolution of Parliament, the Russian railways, and 
the Turkish bank, with a speculative mania commencing 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 83 

again in France, and new operations requiring capital 
on all sides — money is in demand and tight. 

If I have taxed your pages, and your readers' pa- 
tience, in this letter, I promise to be more agreeable 
in the next. 



ARTICLE V. 

Speculation Schemes and Bubbles of Former Times, and those of the 
Present Day — Defalcations in France and England — Financial Im- 
morality Prevalent — Financial Prosperity of France — Association a 
Feature of Modern Enterprise — Banking on a grand Scale the aim 
of Modern Financiers — Banking and Bankers in England — Nathan 
Meyer Rothschild — the Bank of England — Mr. Gilbert and the 
Joint- Stock Banks — International Bank of Paris and its Gigantic Pro- 
jects—Production of the Precious Metals — Free Trade in England — 
Statistics of Wool Trade — Cotton Trade — Danish Sound Dues — 
War Policy of England — China— Silk — Guano Trade — Progress 
everywhere — Late Failures — Credit and Business inflated. 

Paris, France, April 1, 1857. 

My Dear Sir :— The "Tulip Mania" of Holland, 
the " Mississippi Land Scheme " of France, and the 
u South Sea Bubble " of England, are landmarks in 
the history of the Stock Exchange. The journals of 
those days have recorded the madness of the times. 
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments are not more ro- 
mantic, for there is a certain wildness in reckless 
speculation. 

Fraud in high places was the word of the hour ; 



86 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET 



money in trust vanished with the air ; and mer- 
cantile morality was hardly known among the pullers 
of the wires. 

Think of paying thousands of pounds for a tulip 
root, millions for paper land, and tens of millions for 
ventures in the South. Sea ! And when this last bub- 
ble swallowed up all its rivals, and burst; when, like 
Alexander, it had nothing more to conquer, the ex- 
plosion spread misery throughout the Kingdom ! The 
thousand per cent, dividend was a myth, and the rich 
man was poorer than the pauper ! 

A century and a half have passed since then; 
England has rolled up a National Debt that would 
sweep away 40 per cent, of the entire National do- 
main, and individual and public wealth, to liquidate it"; 
but America, in the meantime, has lived and flour- 
ished through three wars, and many " rumors oi 
wars," and placed her fifteenth President in the "White 
House. 

Great as is the lapse of years since the Old World 
was speculation-mad, some of the elements of the 
present day are not so unlike. Bubble Companies may 
have a sounder bottom, but little less morality. Schemes 
as desperate, on a smaller scale, find daily birth; 
neat circulars, glowing advertisements, " splendid re- 
sults,'''' meet you everywhere. Speculation marks our 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 87 

day as well as theirs. Forgery, breach of trust, 
fraud among the leaders, seem to be as prevalent 
now as then, though not on so grand a plan. 
Each day the London editors chronicle some new in- 
stance of crime. The press of France is voiceless, 
hence French bubbles are seldom seen floating upon 
the waters. The water runs too deep — the plans are 
not worked out. 'Tis true that Charpentier and Grre- 
let took a few hundred thousand dollars out of the 
Northern Railway, but what of that ? And Cousin, 
Legendre, and Duchesne de Vere managed to cheat 
the shareholders of the "Docks Napoleon" out of 
$1,400,000 — a refined swindle — but, with this excep- 
tion, the bubbles are not quite ripe. In England, how- 
ever, we get them every mail. The shameful frauds 
of the Tipperary and the Royal British Banks, are 
not yet cold, when crash on crash increases the mal- 
ady that keeps the money market so sleepless. No 
wonder shareholders tremble and grow pale under such 
terrible responsibilities. A dozen bubbles have exploded 
since I wrote you in February — each worse than its 
neighbor. The public was disquieted to find that the 
Directors of the Paris and London Bank had squan- 
dered $70,000 in preliminaries before the Bank had 
opened its doors; still more so, to see the Australian 
Agricultural Company run through all its capital of 



Ob YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

$1,900,000, with nothing to show for it ; but what is 
now their surprise, to see the London and Eastern 
Joint- Stock Bank in such a mess — only three years 
old — with a capital of $1,250,000, loaning one Direc- 
tor, Col. Waugh, on his rotten securities, $1,200,000, 
within $50,000 of its whole stock in trade ! How 
many other leading financiers have taken in the Banks 
as junior partners ? The community is indignant, and 
well it might be. More misery for shareholders and 
depositors ; more spoils for the lawyers ; more dis- 
trust ; less confidence ; a general inquiry of — What next ? 
The North of Europe Steam Company is also in the 
papers — $2,500,000 was a respectable capital, but 
lately one man has relieved them of a handsome sum, 
and it seems that their last was a bogus dividend ! 
Bogus directors — bogus auditors' — no wonder the bub- 
bles burst so rapidly! Redpath coolly takes $1,200,000 
out of the Northern Central, (an English Schuylerism,) 
and gives a portion to his church — the rest to chari- 
ties ! Noblemen shake hands with the $1,500 clerk 
who could give such dinners, and was so good. Rob- 
son was more modest. His frauds had not matured. 
The Crystal Palace — poor bubble — did not need this 
last stab to sink it. While these pleasant transac- 
tions were taking place in England, Huntington was 
gaining popularity on forged notes in Wall-street. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 89 

The moralist has room for work. Go on the Bourse , 
and look at the starting eyes of some of the opera- 
tors — what a life is that of the Rouge et Noir ! M. 
Proudhon, the Socialist writer of 1848, has the pen — 
"Wild luxury — sumptuous debauchery — vice reveling in 
gold — prostitution attired in silk — are the consequences 
of fortunes made without labor!" 

The present century cannot record more financial 
immorality than the journals have announced during 
the last six months. Formerly you noted one fraud 
a year — now 'tis every week. "When Robert Ashlett 
robbed the Bank of England, in 1803, of $1,600,000, 
wild was the excitement; but when Henry Fauntleroy, 
in 1824, forged for $150,000, he was arrested, tried, 
convicted, and hung in the presence of one hundred 
thousand persons! When Rowland Stephenson, in 1828, 
gambled away $1,350,000, and broke his bank, the 
public was indignant. The shock to public morals was 
most severe — " 'twas more than half a dozen failures," 
wrote the Times on the 10th of January, 1829. 

Such cases were very rare till lately, when the 
mania breaks out anew. ' M. Proudhon uses strong 
language when writing on the Bourse. He says all 
France is stock mad. No matter the company, it 
is sure to sell. Grold is the motive power with which 
Napoleon moves the machinery of his Empire. 



90 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Pensioned generals, salaried colonels, well-paid sol- 
diers : gold on all sides—a golden shower. Bonaparte 
made his throne, and holds it well. Ministers, bank- 
ers, and the Bourse — a goodly company. Notwithstand- 
ing the ruinous depreciation in the public fortunes of 
France during the Revolution of 1848 — a fall of 50 
per cent — in spite of short crops, famine, inundation, 
and two war years, the outward sign of prosperity 
stands more prominent than ever. Mark, I say, the 
outward. 

In 1833, the entire public fortune of France was 
but $4,000,000,000 (the sum of England's unpaid 
notes). This amount was represented by — securities, 
$3,350,000,000 ; metallic currency, $650,000,000. To- 
day, the same returns show an increase of 75 per 
cent. ; for the National wealth has rolled up to $7,000,- 
000,000! Can this be a sound state of finance? 

In 1826, there were but 32 companies, with a cap- 
ital of $11,000,000. Twelve years later, just after the 
crisis of 1838, there were 1,039 companies, repre- 
senting a capital of $350,000,000. Railway shares 
alone have increased, since they were first issued, some 
$212,000,000! Will this continue? The Budget will 
best show the returns. In 1829, just before the Bour- 
bon tried his hand as King, it amounted to $180,- 
000,000 ; now it is nearly twice that, and yet taxes are 
collected as easily as thirty years ago. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



91 



Association is also one of the traits of the present 
age. A certain joining of forces — a combination of in- 
terests — union of capital. Europe is swarming with 
companies — a prospectus for everything in Christen- 
dom — from supplying a theatre with actors to build- 
ing a church. What an odd idea — putting a church 
into shares and stock! But so it is. Where individ- 
uals fail, companies lose larger, and bring wider ruin. 
Government the prop of all ; and when it trembles, 
down tumbles the house of cards — the credit of the 
Bourse ! Corporations take the poor man's money, and 
the nation prospers. 

See what association has done for the United States. 
Our railways never would have been built by indi- 
viduals. The farmer's real estate advances to make 
up the loss on stock. Foreign iron must be imported, 
and able-bodied Irishmen ; which gave employment to a 
fleet of ships, and mechanics prospered in launching 
them. The labor itself was a fortune. If a black man 
will sell under the hammer for a thousand dollars, 
the several millions of able-bodied workmen brought 
over from the old courtry to make our Western roads, 
at Southern prices, would be worth more than a cot- 
ton crop. But we should wait for the re-action. 

Association covers a wide field, and rules our time, 
while individuals rule it. The grand company, after 



92 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

all, follows the beck of the originator. As Palmerston 
rules England, Napoleon France, Alexander Russia, 
Biddle ruled the Bank. So one mind, in the Board of 
Directors has everything his own way — one head gen- 
erally manages the Board. Enterprise, talent, launches 
the scheme ; outsiders throw in the money ; dividends 
are paid for a few years, and then comes another 
phase of association — companies assisting each other ; 
a wider range of kiting. 

Literary clubs, political reunions, public charters, are 
some of the fruits of association. When you reflect, 
you find but a few men rule the world ; a few men 
formed the Fremont party, and a few men elected 
Buchanan ! Association of governments gave us war, 
and afterwards the same association made a peace. I 
wish they would turn their talents to something use- 
ful, such as catting that Siamese band at Darien, 
making islands of the two Americas, as France and 
England propose to do with Africa and Asia, by chan- 
neling a road to Suez. The world's commerce de- 
mands something new, and if no more continents re- 
main to be discovered, why not divide those we have, 
and multiply the tracks across the seas? The iron 
path at Panama was worthy of our nation ; another 
year, that from Alexandria to Cairo will connect at 
Suez the Mediterranean with the Sea of Pharoah. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 93 

Association does it. Trans-Atlantic steam lines, under 
its influence, are most fashionable. The Emperor ap- 
proves of it ; the Grovernment indorses his acts ; the 
Credit Mobilier has the money ; and France, not con- 
tent with military honors upon the land, is looking 
oceanward. The French merchants are putting out to 
sea! I saw few French ships and few French firms, 
while running round the world the other day, while 
the English and Americans were everywhere. Napoleon 
will change all that. He reduces the army, but aug- 
ments the navy, and has much faith in foreign com- 
merce as a civilizer. When the French steamers open 
the trade, and the French and Grerman railways are 
united, the new packets will get the continental trade ; 
and with a good Grovernment grant, and all the French 
business to support them, the new Trans-Atlantic lines 
will prove a thorn in the side of the English com- 
panies, and will bid fair to rob them of some good 
freights, and English merchants of some good com- 
missions. France begins to profit by the lessons of 
her neighbor. 

Association, which has done so much for England and 
America, is making its way into the European world. 
Germany has organized some fifteen or twenty new 
credit companies, all flushed with paper, based on 
nothing tangible. She has to-day some 300,000,000 of 



94 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

paper notes in circulation. Austria has $45,000,000 
hard silver in her treasury lying idle ; but her depre- 
ciated paper may be found in every village, valueless 
after it passes the frontier. I discovered that by the 
best of teachers — experience. 

Banking on a grand scale is the aim of modern finan- 
ciers. I like to trace its rise and progress— since the 
first William founded the Exchequer 800 years ago— 
since the formation of the " Society of Merchant Ad- 
venturers," in 1248 — since one of the early bankers, 
Sir Josiah Child, (whose ships did not return from the 
East, where they assisted in founding the Indian 
Empire in 1601, in time to bring the money to 
meet his notes,) borrowed $200,000 to keep him 
afloat. Later on, in 1661, this company numbered 
8,500 members, but the Government suppressed it in 
1689. How easily one can run back and look over 
each step from the early ages— from barter to bullion, 
bullion to credit, credit to bills of exchange— from the 
Anglo-Saxons, who introduced pence, to the Normans, 
who added, pounds and shillings, and thus estab- 
lished the currency of England— so clumsy and inferior 
to our Federal money. The Jews were the first private 
bankers, then the Lombards, and afterwards came the 
G-oldsmiths. Henry III. and the Pope managed their 
money matters by bills of exchange ; and when Spain 
paid France that heavy subsidy in 1804, the financial 



Young America in wall-street, 95 

movement by bills, on England, through the continental 
exchanges, was a study. The rate of interest in the 
olden times ranged high — Cromwell reduced it to six 
per cent., the bank rate of both France and England 
to-day ; Queen Anne dropped it to five. 

Leatham estimates the bills of exchange issued in 
England in 1839 at $2,642,000,000, $660,000,000 
of which were running at one time. The amount now 
must be something more extensive. The bankers of 
England manage her entire business. America draws 
and sells bills at home, but in England the buyer in 
the country draws on London, and the Americans have 
to meet the bills before maturity. The exchange is on 
England. Will not our railway securities and our ex- 
ports some day make a rate the other way ? So long 
as England levies a toll on the business of the world, 
pocketing a commission out of everything and every- 
body, she will give herself no trouble about it. New- 
York, as the outlet of American commerce, must bring 
the theory into practice. The electric cable will benefit 
America more than England, 

Just now American bonds drag, England prefers 
Russian to French funds ; loans money to Sardinia, but 
no more to Spain ; makes advances on a miserable 
Greek bond or Persian obligation ; builds the Thames 
Tunnel, the Tubular Bridge, the Crystal Palace, and 



96 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

the " Great Eastern ;" Turkey gets a loan ; India is 
not forgotten ; Mexico is befriended ; yet when we are 
in the market, England thinks of Sydney Smith and 
Pennsylvania ; talks of repudiation ; mentions Califor- 
nia ; and looks sharp (but not sharp enough) at all 
securities that find their way to the money market. 
Notwithstanding this, we buy the iron, sell the bonds, 
pay the dividends, build more roads, and grow rich on 
England's money. 

England is, and always has been, in 'the hands of her 
bankers — the cleverest men in the kingdom : such as 
Francis Child, the banking goldsmith, and " Jingling 
Greorgie," old Herriot, who founded the hospital at Edin- 
burgh. Thomas Coutts died in 1822, (one year after 
Napoleon,) at eighty-seven. At one time he was the 
banker of George III. His fortune, of $4,500,000, 
from his wife, passed to his grand-daughter, Miss Burdett 
Coutts, the owner of the bank of Coutts & Co., managed 
through trustees. Then there was Strahan, Paul & Co., 
established in the seventeenth century, one of the first 
and most respectable of the old bankers. Their suc- 
cessors, as you are aware, have been transported for. 
fraud and perjury. Jones, Lloyd & Co. were long ago 
great names, and are still. Mr. Lloyd, the dissenting 
minister, became the banker, whose offspring became a 
peer, the present Lord Overstone. This was the firm, 
says Lawson, in his " History of Banking," that intro- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. * 97 

duced the phrase (not the practice) known among bill- 
drawers — " Pork on bacon !" The Barings have done 
their share in holding high the banker's reputation. 

"Who rules the banking world?" asked Lord Byron, 
in Don Juan. " Jew Rothschild, and his fellow Christian 
Baring !" When the learned student, Meyer Anselm, 
died at Frankfort, in 1812, his parting advice to his 
five sons was to hang together. He knew the power of 
association. In 1808, Nathan Meyer Rothschild settled 
in Manchester. From buttons he went to banking. He 
managed investments so well as to gain the entire 
patronage of the German princes, and since then the 
house of Rothschild has been the friend of despotic 
kings. He was really a great man. He not only intro- 
duced the practice of the payment of dividends on fo 
reign loans into England, but he arranged them to be 
paid in sterling. He loaned to European powers, estab- 
lished rates of exchange on any part of the world, moved 
bullion and merchandise to suit his wishes, founded 
houses in the chief continental cities, sent agents to 
every commercial port, always received the latest in- 
telligence — and so retentive was his memory, he never 
carried a note-book ! 

On Tuesdays and Fridays you would always find him 
at " Rothschild's Pillar" on the Stock Exchange. A 
broker by the name of Rose was the only man who 

5 



98 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

was bold enough to occupy the stand of the Money 
King, and he disputed the right but an hour. Roths- 
child wrote a miserable hand. A Montrose banker 
once made him wait a week in Scotland, that he might 
see if his check was cashed in London. On the 28th 
of July, 1836, a carrier pigeon brought to London from 
Frankfort this simple dispatch—" He is dead,'' 1 

The Brothers Rothschild have shown, in their suc- 
cess, the power of association. Their sons will take 
their place, and with proper management may hold 
their honors another generation. The private bankers 
have the best of it lately, for the recent disclosures 
have shaken confidence in the joint-stock companies. 
Grreat competition has introduced great facilities, and 
overdrawn accounts on bogus securities have proved 
fatal in several cases. The unlimited liability is sweep- 
ing in its effects. The rich shareholder is held for 
every pound of indebtedness. The Bank of England 
and the private bankers wage hot war against the joint- 
stock enterprise, Mr. Gilbart, the distinguished finan- 
cial writer and talented Manager of the London and 
"Westminster Bank, was the first to break down that 
protective Act, prohibiting the establishment of any other 
bank within sixty-five miles of London ! In 1834, 
(the year the East India Company lost their mono- 
poly of the China trade,) he succeeded, and most ably 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



99 



has he governed the bank of which he was the founder, 
At first the Bank of England refused him a drawing 
account, and the Clearing House was equally hostile, 
The wedge once in, the system soon spread over the 
kingdom. 

No banker can he elected to the Directory of the 
Bank of England ; merchant stockholders only are eli- 
gible, and no stockholder can have more than four votes. 
The Bank has just declared a semi-annual dividend of 
four- and- a-half per cent. The "Rest" now stands at 
815,000,000. The net profit for the half year was 
$3,430,000 ! Few questions are asked at these meet- 
ings ; "as secret as a bank director or bank return" 
has become a proverb. The " sweating-room" could a 
tale unfold ! 

It was. not my intention, when I commenced this let- 
ter, to occupy so much room in running along the page 
of banking, bubbles, and speculation, but the subject 
widened as I wrote, and from the " Society of Merchant 
Adventurers," six centuries since, I have passed from 
age to age, until I come down to the grandest of all 
banking projects — the " International Bank of Paris" — 
the most wonderful speculation of the day !* Stand off, 
Pereire ! The Credit Mobilier has now a more power- 
ful rival than your old employer, Rothschild ! The 

* The unsettled state of the money market killed the project in its 
infancy. 



100 Young America in wall-street. 

programme is not disguised. It is a " Societe Ano« 
nyme," styled " The International Company of Com- 
mercial Credit ;" responsibility limited to amount of 
its shares ; its business : banking, commerce, agency, 
in short, everything appertaining to la question d) ar- 
gent. The difference between this Company and the 
Credit Mobilier is, that the one affects to be, while the 
other starts upon the ground that it really is, interna- 
tional. The capital is enormous — twice that of the Cre- 
dit Mobilier— $24,000, 000 to commence with ! Eng- 
land and France take a third each — the balance is for 
the Continent. With such machinery, the advances may 
open with, say $500,000,000. This is indeed a power 
* — a king among his subjects. What an immense field 
for speculation ! What an impetus it will give to 
trade ! With no liability but its shares — no check save 
a warning from . the Government ! All minor banks are 
swamped-— outsiders will be crushed ! With such power, 
they can defy litigation ; rule the judicial bench ; dic- 
tate to cabinets ; make war or demand peace ; manage 
the world's staples ; spend millions where others dispense 
hundreds ; play the despot in commerce ; everywhere 
dictating with iron rule ! 

There are to be twenty-five directors — fifteen French, 
six English, and four Grerman. Among some of the 
proposed names are M. Armand Donon, (Donon, Aubrey, 
G-autier, & Co.,) M. Albert Dufour, (Managing Director 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



101 



of the German General Bank of Leipsic,) M. Robert 
Kayser, (Vice-President of the Hamburg North German 
Bank,) MM. Soul, Arthur, De Haber & Henri, F. L. 
Marce, (agents for M. David Hausemaine, formerly 
Prussian Minister of Finance, now Manager of the Ber- 
lin Discount Company,) Wm. Gladstone, (Thomson, 
Donon, & Co., London and St. Petersburg Directors 
of the Orleans Railway Company,) Mr. AVeguelin, (Gov- 
ernor of the Bank of England,) David Solomon, Charles 
Morrison, Arthur Haukey, and several others ; but this 
list will show the metal of the leaders — in my opinion, 
if it can get under way— the most powerful bank ever 
established. Speculation can now flourish, and the 
wildest schemes need not give up all hope. This great 
project is to wield immense influence everywhere. So 
sympathetic is finance, each nation acts upon its neigh- 
bor. So with the bank on all about it. This scheme 
will show the wildness of the times. 

The movement of the precious metals still occupies 
the mind of financial writers. That, and the bank 
charter debates, keep up the money excitement. M. 
Michael Chevalier is out in the Debats on the bank 
question. He does not believe in dead-weight securi- 
ties or loans to States — thinks it causes panic when 
commerce is in a bad way, and that a national bank 
should stand on national credit. 

Humboldt says that the silver production of America 



102 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

from Columbus's visit, 1492, to 1803, was estimated 
at $4,355,428,500; from 1803 to 1848, the period of 
the new gold Ophirs, $1,270,000,000; add for other 
countries, say $575,000,000 ; making a total of 
$6,200,428,500. 

Chevalier puts down the average silver production 
during this century at— in 1800,37,000,000; in 1840, 
$35,000,000 ; in 1850, 45,000,000 ; of which Mexico 
gives 60 per cent — West Coast and South America 
the balance. 

The Russian economist Oretshoff, says that he es- 
timates, after having examined Humboldt, Chevalier, 
and other financial writers, that the total weight of 
silver in the world may be stated at 500,000,000 
pounds, or 250,000 tons ; while he puts the gold down 
at 32,000,000 pounds, or 16,000 tons. Now, if these 
statements may be relied upon, I don't think we 
need feel much alarm at seeing some $70,000,000 
per annum find its way eastward ; for if we produce 
forty or fifty millions each year, the balance can't be 
great. Besides, some time it must come back again 
— 'tis only a question of exchange, or balance of trade. 

For want of some better cause, the money market 
is said to be depressed on account of the elections — 
a poor argument. The present election cries have been, 
War ! or No war ! Palmerston ! or Derby ! 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 103 

Free Trade against Protection, was the rally for trie last 
two Parliaments ; but this time the practical working of 
the free trade principle has dissipated the illiberal policy. 
? Twas up-hill work for a long time ; shipowners 
stormed, landowners argued, colonies battled against 
that tide which, taken at its ebb, led on to 
the repeal of the corn laws, of the navigation laws, 
and to the equalization of the sugar duties. The 
siege was long and severe, and the result shows that 
the repealers were right. Examine the trade tables, 
and you will see the essence of the argument. Con- 
tinued bad crops made corn prices range high during 
the ten years antecedent to 1846, when, under the 
sliding scale, the annual import was 3,028,000 quar- 
ters. But the law of that year came into play in 
1849, and then it was that our Western lands turned 
out the grain for British stomachs. From 1846 to 
1856, the annual import of grain, flour, &c, into En- 
gland was 9,019,000 quarters; which, taking 2,000,000 
for increased production, and the 6,000,000 quarters 
additional import, the British people consume some 
8,000,000 quarters more than before the repeal of the 
corn law ! Yet, strange to say, prices before and after 
have varied, on the average, but tivo shillings per 
quarter. 

Free trade in sugar has given a great impetus to 
consumption. The reduction on foreign sugars com- 



104 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



menoed with Peel's Bill of 1844, and the extension 
or liberalizing of the Act each year till 1848, consum- 
mated the equalization of the sugar duties. In 1844, 
the consumption was 197,471 tons ; ten years after, 
in 1854, 400,096 tons— free trade had doubled the re- 
turns. "We may safely take the average now at 400,000 
tons, against 200,000 for twenty years antecedent to 
the change. The British colonies have also received a 
wonderful stimulus — an increase of 40 per cent in ten 
years, say 200,000 tons, then, against 315,000 tons 
last year. 

But free trade supporters find the strongest argu- 
ment in the shipping returns — before and after the 
Navigation Act of 1850, when America, for the first 
time in her life, outwitted John Bull in a treaty ! 
Protection must explode. England set the example ; 
Prance is trying to follow; Russia has modified her 
law, reducing the duty on woolens one-half; and even 
Persia is extending her commercial relations, signing 
treaties with the chief powers, the United States Min- 
ister taking the initiative at Constantinople ; Charles S. 
Spence was appointed Commissioner by the American 
Government, and has received the first "order" ever 
given to an American by a Persian Shah ; and now 
America has at last shaken off a little of the manu- 
facturers' monopoly. 

But before I lose the point, let me show the ship- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 105 

ping balances. In 1842, the amount of tonnage en- 
tered and cleared at British ports was 7,345,000 tons ; 
in 1849, 11,501,000 ! After the repeal act, naviga- 
tion shot ahead of all expectations. The same tables 
in 1856 showed an increase of 150 per cent, over 
the old restrictive system, and even 50 per cent, over 
those previous to 1850; say, in 1856, 17,900,000 
tons ! Even the shipping of Great Britain has doubled 
since England pursued the liberal policy : those re- 
turns give, both ways, in 1842, 5,415,000 tons ; in 
1856, 9,770,000 tons. 

'Tis a little singular that a Northern Senator should 
have been in time to save the Tariff Bill. As far as 
it goes, 'tis a good beginning. The idea once started, 
the lever will do its work. But is it not strange 
that, while despotic Europe has taken two steps 
towards free trade, America contents herself with one ? 
Free trade in raw materials — wool, costing over 20 
cents per pound, 25 per cent. ; under, free. I doubt 
if you get anything from the Australian shepherds on 
those terms. Australian prices for greasy wool range 
from 20 to 26 cents, while finer qualities command 
from those rates to 60 cents. The freight is from 
one to two cents per pound. 

While on this question, let us see where the wool 
comes from. Step into the wool stores of the London 

5* 



106 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Docks, if you wish, to understand it, where 200,000 
bales are disposed of at the four quarterly sales, 
where $350,000 is the average amount taken every 
day for five weeks, the length of each quarterly sale. 
The opium market of Calcutta presents a tableau of 
Eastern gamblers difficult to picture, but the wool 
sales of England are but little less exciting. The 
quantity of wool from the Australian colonies imported 
into England in 1833 was 14,948 bales ; in 1856, 
166,640 bales. Even the gold discoveries have not 
diminished the supply. The Cape Colony has also 
shown a great increase. In 1842, the imports were 
6,431 bales ; in 1850, 50,580 bales. While the South 
American farmers send us their fifty-pound ballots of 
alpaca, and make us pay from 50 to 75 cents per 
pound, the Greek merchants charge us similar rates 
for the goats' wool of Asia Minor. In 1846, 5,231 
bales went into England ; in 1856, 13,427 bales of 
160 pounds. India and China contributed 45,550 bales, 
of three cwt. each, last year, against 12,550 in 1851. 

These large colonial supplies have entirely broken 
up that monopoly which the Spanish and Germans 
held for over a quarter of a century. Now, continen- 
tal buyers can make better bargains at the English 
sales. You will see the falling of in Continental sup- 
ply : — British imports from the Continent, 1836, 61,632 
bales; 1846, 52,922 bales; 1856, 18,401 bales. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 107 

Bradford alone consumes, it is estimated, one-half 
the wool production of the British Isles. The returns 
are not easily obtained. In 1800, it was estimated 
at 384,000 packs of 240 pounds each; in 1846, 
McCulloch gives 540,000 ; and in 1851, it had in- 
creased to 820,000 packs. The total imports of colo- 
nial and foreign wool into England were, in 1855, 
329,205 bales ; in 1856, 315,035 bales. Official papers 
give 1,306 woolen and 493 worsted mills under full 
steam in 1849, employing, directly and indirectly, more 
than half a million workmen. 

"While Yorkshire works day and night in turning out 
the wool, Lancashire blackens the sky with smoke in 
putting the cotton into shape. Australia supplies the 
one — America the other. In 1856, the cotton con- 
sumption of Great Britain was 2,557,845 bales ; Con- 
tinental Europe, 1,364,000 bales ; United States, 
770,239 bales ; total 4,392,084 bales. One can hardly 
credit the returns that mark the increase in this im- 
portant staple during the last ten years. The import 
of cotton into England in 1846 is stated at 467,856,274 
pounds; in ten years, 1856, it increased to 1,014,495,622 
pounds ; towards which total the United States con- 
tributed 803,563,430 pounds, while India gave but 
147,436,266. 

Denmark, you are aware, has talked the powers into 



108 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

signing the convention on the Sound Dues, March 14 
England pays $5,625,000. Parliament may not in- 
dorse the act of her minister. Russia followed suit — 
and the German States, so traditional in their policy — 
and even France — all have signed the paper — save the 
United States — alone, as may she ever he, in her glory. 

Lord Palmerston's revenge is complete. He has gained 
much more than he had lost. He is again in power 
— again England's ruler. The Manchester party has 
fallen ? Cobden, Bright, Gibson, and Layard are out 
of the ring ; a great loss to the British nation, for 
there are few abler men in it ; but Lord John Rus- 
sell has taken his seat for London. The English peo- 
ple will always vote for war ! Eighty years ago a 
Parliament was elected to fight us in the West to 
the death — so has it been to-day returned to carry on 
the war in the East. 

Nothing later from China. 

Lord Ellenborough says that the war has clogged 
the wheels of the Indian trade ; embarrassed Govern- 
ment, which has sunk about $4,000,000 in the 22 
per cent, depreciation on opium ; upset commerce, 
ruined the merchants, and already caused a loss 
of $20,000,000 to England. The Honorable Company, 
he says, have tried in vain, at four, five, and now 
as high as seven per cent., to get their $15,000,000 
loan. "Who wonders, when in six weeks' time the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 109 

Bengal banks advanced their rate of interest from six 
to fourteen per cent. ? 

The local controversy looks like a national war. The 
Canton lorcha may sink the ship of State, unless the 
Emperor gives up the fight. The philanthropists, the 
missionaries, the moralists, are all with their " paper 
bullets of the brain," battling against the merchants 
and the war-spirit of England — without effect. 

Cushing's treaty of 1844 expires about this time. 
Let us hope that Mr. Read will take good care of 
the Americans. The " Empress of China," just seventy- 
three years since — the year after we signed that na- 
tional contract with Great Britain — was the pioneer. 
That voyage was successful, and China since then has 
given our people good returns. China is a garden — 
not a desert. Our commerce with her is in the fu- 
ture. Tea we mast have, (though we once threw it 
into Boston harbor,) but at a lower price. Silk also 
must be imported, for the silk worms are dying in 
Europe. 

During the past four years the decreased supply on 
this side accounts for increased importations. Since 
1837, France alone shows a falling off in the value 
of silk worms from $23,400,000 that year, to $13,- 
400,000 the past twelve months. 

Shipping on all sides seeks vainly for good employ- 



110 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

meht. Even guano charters are hard to obtain — yes- 
terday on application to the agents, they answered " No." 
French farmers and French soil want guano ; but 
France, in this case, forgets the farmer, and protects 
the ship-owner. Seven dollars a ton is levied on all 
brought in foreign bottoms. French ships don't like 
guano freights, and as only 30,000 tons head annu- 
ally towards the Pacific, the Americans get most of 
the cargoes. Hence, while England consumes her 200,- 
000 tons per annum, little Belgium her 50,000, France 
only got 32,000 in 1856, and 19,000 in 1855. In 
England, the imports, in the face of demand and rise 
in price from $55 to $65 per ton, have dropped from 
305,061 tons in 1855, to 191,501 tons in 1856. Mon- 
taigne & Co., for France, like Bareda Brothers, for 
America, and Gribbs & Co., for Great Britain, make 
the charters direct, or through their agents, and when 
they change the rates they seem to give the wink to 
each other ! How natural ! 

Your readers desire permanent, not transient articles. 
Well, you will find some facts crowded into this let- 
ter. I will try and be consistent, though I touch on 
many subjects. I will avoid repetition as much as 
possible ; but keeping no copies, and memory none of 
the best, you may note some eating of words. 

Don't, I beg of you, because I commenced with 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. Ill 

some remarks about bubbles, and found some similarity 
in the present times, suppose for a moment that I think 
the world is coming to an end ! Perhaps now there is 
more method in the whirl of speculation. Things have 
changed since Newton saw the apple fall — Watts the ket- 
tle boil. Whales are scarce upon the ocean, yet Gras in- 
creases with the coal. Railways pass every village, yet 
the stage-horses continue to find employment. The 
penny postage gives more revenue than the shilling. 
Steam has cut the ninety days' passage to New York down 
to ten. The telegraph makes the talking distance noth- 
ing. With one spare shirt we may soon voyage round 
the world. If such things happen, why shouldn't money 
be on a pinch? The " Persia" will tell you of the 
state of affairs. Last week Messrs. J. R. Brown & 
Co., of London and Sunderland, failed for $1,600,000! 
Three days since, the old-established house of Grreen 
& Co., Paris, closed their doors for a heavy sum — a 
bad South American account the alleged cause. De- 
positors are much embarrassed — those traveling in Eu- 
rope with their credits are cut off from supplies. 'Tis 
hard for the students. Straws show the course of the 
wind. 

In 1825, seventy Banks failed in six weeks — we 
have not come to that yet. Credit and business, I 
am told, are perfectly sound, though high prices for 
raw material are telling upon the manufacturers of 



112 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

England. Credit, like a monument, will stand, if you 
don't touch the foundation. Throw the stones off from 
the top of the pyramid of Grhizeh, and you may work 
till the last day — commence to undermine, and the 
fabric may totter. Therefore, the failures and the 
frauds of the day may only be the topmost stones, 
leaving the general body of credit firm as the rock 
of G-ibraltar. This simile would be a strong argument 
for those who believe in the continuance of prosperity, 
if, in the madness of the age, speculators had not 
turned the pyramid of credit upside down. 



ARTICLE VI. 

New- York to France — Lyons and its Manufactures — Marseilles and its 
Commerce — Mires makes Docks out of Mountains — "Why Paris is 
France — Toulon, where Bonaparte commenced his Career — Nice and 
Genoa — Palace of Pallavicino not equal to Chatsworth — American 
Ships in Port — Frigate " Congress " — Leghorn — Civita Vecchia, the 
Port of Rome, a disgrace to the Pope — Naples — Mount Vesuvius — 
Pompeii and Herculaneum — Bomba and Lord Palmerston — Rome 
and the Saxon Pilgrims — Railways and Gas — St. Peter's — American 
Artists in Rome — No Commerce in Italy — The Conveyances and the 
Passport System — Hard Times near at Hand — Credit Mobilier the 
bane of Europe — Enormous Transactions — Failure of Directors — 
Stock Speculations — Bank of France weathered all Storms — French 
Railways — Population Decreasing — France living a Dream Life — 
Emperor invites all Nations to visit him — Census Returns — Post 
Office Arrangements — Exports — Free Trade against Protection — 
Merchant Shipping Act — Guano — How long will it last? — Marine 
Losses — Newfoundland Fisheries — Lady Franklin's Expedition — 
Hudson Bay Company — Russian Railways opposed by English Capi- 
talists — Russian Emperor's visit to Paris — Sir James Brook and the 
Borneo Massacre — Gloomy appearance of the English Financial 
Horizon — Cost of English Railways — Indian Ditto — London to Bengal 
— China hard pushed — Last War — Embassies all Failures — Australian 
Markets again overdone — Money Market — Exchanges — Melbourne 
Market — Great Eastern — Unsettled state of Europe. 

Home, June 1st., 1857. 
My Dear Sir : — From New-York, on the Hudson, 
to London, on the Thames, is but a twelve days' 



114 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



journey ; twelve hours more will take you to Paris, on 
the Seine, and in as many weeks you may run 
through France into Italy, and home again by the 
northern kingdoms ; for weeks are days, months are 
weeks, in the age of steam! My last went from 
Paris, now I write from Rome. Having nailed the 
language in France, I wish to try my tongue in 
Italy, so I took a trip over the Mediterranean Rail- 
way, and stopped at Lyons, situated where the Saone 
joins the Rhone, chief of manufacturing cities, with 
a population of 275,000 people, and 7,000 factories, 
turning 20,000 looms, in working up silk, cotton, 
wool, crape, and gold and silver lace, into all the 
colors of the rainbow, to meet the American and 
European tastes — for Broadway depends upon Lyons for 
many of its choicest samples. Americans owe her large 
sums of money. 'Tis a flourishing town, but dull and 
heavy in appearance, with houses almost as high as 
those in Edinburgh, and dark streets and uninviting 
squares. One day here, and then we rattled on, through 
many tunnels and banks of solid rocks, to that old 
Phoenician town — established when Confucius was a 
baby, some six hundred years before the Christian's re- 
ligion — Marseilles, first of Levantine seaports, the steam- 
packet station for the Peninsula, Italy, and the East, 
where art has assisted nature in making a splendid harbor, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 115 

where soap, coral, porcelain, glass, tobacco, and print- 
ed goods are manufactured. 

Where, too, the successful bidder for the Spanish 
loan, M. Mires, is making docks out of mountains — an 
enterprise worthy of Napoleon's reign ! Marseilles has 
about 185,000 inhabitants, and seems to be almost 
entirely a commercial city, and, like Cologne, or a 
Chinese port, the filth of the streets about the wharf 
is only exceeded by their stink — (an expressive word, 
in common use in England). Besides the activity of its 
commerce, there is little to interest the tourist. 

The more you travel in the country, the more you 
see the truth of the oft-repeated remark that Paris is 
France. The other cities and towns are drained to 
ornament the capital — see Paris and be happy. Leav- 
ing Marseilles, we passed the ship-building port of 
Toulon, where Barras saw Napoleon's genius for war, 
and where ships' anchors, canvas, cordage, and other 
shipping materials are made. Sailed by Nice and 
several towns at the foot of the mountain ranges, and 
one day's steaming showed us the hills where Colum- 
bus spent his boyhood's days in mapping out a world ! 
(xenoa, La Superba, with a population of 144,000, 
a Levantine commerce, and few American ships. But 
the most beautiful place in Genoa was the Pallavi- 
cino, where a prince has spent millions, with a taste 



116 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

that startles you with wonder that anything could he 
made so grand ! Yet after all 'tis not so gorgeous 
as Chatsworth. From Gfenoa to the commercial port 
of Tuscany, Leghorn, where there were more Ame- 
rican ships landing tohacco, and loading marble, and 
there was some cotton on the quay. The port is free, 
and with Americans could be made to nourish — with 
Italians — never ! Commodore Breeze unfurls his flag, 
and represents the country in the " Congress," while the 
Susquehanna has just sailed to assist in laying the 
Atlantic cable. From Leghorn we coasted along to 
that dirty, miserable hole, Civita Yecchia, the port of 
Rome — a place full of unclean spirits, a disgrace to 
the Pope and his dominions. Afterwards to the chief 
city of the Two Sicilies, Naples, with 360,000 inha- 
bitants and 300 churches, a splendid library, a classic 
bay, and, towering high in air, Yesuvius. The vol- 
cano is in full blast, and as I gazed upon the crater, 
and jumped aside to save my head from a shower of 
red-hot lava, I could but contemplate upon the scene, 
and having wandered over the ruins of Pompeii and 
Herculaneum, destroyed some eighteen centuries ago 
by this same mountain, I asked myself what can save 
Naples when the volcano takes another erratic flight ? 
Who understands it ? Why not expect another shak- 
ing of the mountain ? Were I a Neapolitan, the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 117 

coming comet most to be feared would be Vesuvius. 
I saw enough, to stifle any desire one might have to 
buy real estate in these parts ! I think a little stream 
of lava running into the king's palace would be a 
good thing for Naples. Bomba still chuckles at Lord 
Palmerston and his miserable attempt to frighten him, 
and lives shut up in his castle surrounded by spies, 
hated by all, while his brother, the Prince of Syra- 
cuse, drives four in hand among the people, who ad- 
mire him for his talent and good nature, in such 
marked contrast to the king. I saw Naples, and here 
I am at Imperial Rome. 

" While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand ; 
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall ; 



was the prophecy of the early Saxon pilgrims. 

The first two lines I can indorse, but as for the last 
suggestion, I think the world would stand some time, 
and be much richer, if Rome were blotted out of exist- 
ence. 

Modern enterprise has at last got in among the ruins 
of the Caesars' palaces, for M. Mires is giving the Pope 
a railway, and on the 1st of January, 1854, an English 
Company lighted the streets of the Imperial city with 
gas, and thus far have realized eight per cent, per an- 



118 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

num. on the investment. Rome needed lighting had 
enough ? Here you have a flood of history, coming down 
from the foster mother of the Romans— a she-wolf! and 
genius and science, "beggars, bigotry, art, and foreign fash- 
ion, a]l mixed up in unhappy confusion ; old ruins, and a 
church that was 176 years in building, which took 
350 years to finish it, and cost $50,000,000! Rom- 
ulus and Remus would never have sanctioned such 
extravagance, for they showed their economy in their 
wet nurse. 

America is well represented here ; our artists have 
made their mark ; our sculptors are walking up the 
ladder of fame ; modern talent is crowding hard upon 
the ancient ; genius lives in all the studios. Bartholo- 
mew's statue of Eve will shortly be as famous as 
Power's Greek Slave. It is only to be known, and 
the Connecticut . sculptor will receive his just reward. 
But I forget, I am writing for the Magazine, and must 
talk of Commerce. 

Commerce in Italy ! where is it ? I never heard 
the word, and will not insult its noble order by asso- 
ciating it with this unhappy land. The Lombards 
are gone ; the Yenetians are not what they once were. 
There is nothing that deserves the name of commerce 
in Italy ! Wherever I go I hear nothing but a low, 
stifled growl. All the way from Naples, along the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 119 

coast, to Rome, the life-blood seems stamped out. 
The Neapolitan king lives in a fortress, while the Pope 
is moving among his subjects. Swiss regiments occupy 
the dominions of the one, French soldiers guard the 
gates of the other ; while, vulture- like, hovering on the 
borders with jealous eye, you have an Austrian army. 
Poor priest-ridden Italy ! no unison in her States, no 
bright future ! For the heel of foreign despotism is crush- 
ing out her soul— she lives on in the remembrance of her 
past glory. But now she has nothing but those memo- 
ries, and her skies. I find- no statistics ; in fact I have 
not the energy to search far, for where the day is re- 
duced to twenty hours, where the difficulty of getting 
into the country is only excelled by trying to get out 
again, and a policeman meets you everywhere^ ivhat 
can you . expect ? And thinking that foreign potentates 
do not throw enough of obstacles in the road of the 
traveler, our own Government steps in to hold us by 
the collar, and like the bandit of the country, demands 
a dollar for letting ,you pass the gate ! "What a sin- 
gular policy ! While an American President is announ- 
cing to the debt-burthened nations, that the more-or- 
less-United States are embarrassed with some thirty 
millions surplus revenue, an American consul meets 
you in every foreign land with "One dollar for your 
passport /" While all foreigners are permitted to range 



120 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



free and untrammeled over our broad domain, our 
own citizens, continental-bound, are met, the moment 
they touch another State with, "One dollar, if you please, 
for permission to continue pour journey." While edu- 
cation occupies so much attention throughout our 
land, and every facility is given on our own soil to pro- 
mote it, the moment we arrive in a foreign kingdom 
you find a United States' official to greet you with, 
"One dollar for your passport before you can go on 
shore /" No matter how well provided you may be 
with the proper paper from the State Department, 
even go to Italy as the bearer of dispatches, and still 
it is " One dollar for your passport." Is it not pitiful to 
witness a great nation, with liberal institutions and 
treasury full to overflowing, sneaking about in foreign 
lands to annoy the traveler, by multiplying the chances 
of delay, and picking up a dollar here and a dollar 
there, for the distinguished privilege of having another, 
perhaps the hundredth, signature to your ticket of 
leave ? Depend upon it, Secretary Marcy has won no 
laurels by this petty consular charge. European Gov- 
ernments seem to take pleasure in throwing stones in 
your path. They do as they please — we cannot help 
it. Our remedy is to stay at home ; or go abroad, 
pay the bills, and grumble ! Oh, what a luxury ! 
Let us profit by England's good, but not adopt her 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 121 

bad, habits ; and if salaried consuls with her demand 
fees, there is no reason why we should fall into the 
same practice. America is old enough and rich enough 
to map out a wider and more enlightened policy. Cor- 
rect me if I am wrong. 

To throw you off anything readable, I must step 
out of Italy into Europe, and out of Europe into 
England, for, as I said before, you see little that re- 
minds you of a living commerce in these lands — I 
must look to England for material, and France, and 
then go out to China. 

The general wail through England is, ll Hard times;" 
and yet thinking men will assure you that everything 
is sound! (to be sure, the more hollow the more 
sound). You must dig deeper to find the stain. Pow- 
ers has already lost five blocks of marble on his 
statue of California, (for Mr. Wm. B. Astor.) The 
surface was sound and clear, the statues almost fin- 
ished, when to ! another cut of the chisel, and the 
figure was ruined. A little more pressure on the 
money market, and loss of confidence creates dismay. 

The Credit Mobilier is the bane of Europe. Bad 

example destroys society. Pereire has just issued his 

fourth annual report. The figures are startling ! Profits 

for the year, $3,000,000! Dividend declared, 23 per 

6 



122 



TOUNG AMERICA IN WALL- STREET, 



cent. ! last year it was 40 per cent. Mark some of 
its operations. Cash transactions $617,000,000! let me 
enumerate two or three :— 

Subscribed to Government loan.. $50,000,000 

Account current with Bank of France. 240,000,000 

Contributed towards periodical settlements of the share 

market , , 140,000,000 

Purchase of stock to support the public fund 8,000,000 



)ffered to subscribe $60,000,000 to aid Bank of 
France when in a tight place last fall — and all this 
on a capital of only $12,000,000! And this is the 
Credit Mobilier ! It buys, it sells, is agent and owner 
by turns, deals in railways from St. Petersburg to 
Madrid, builds docks, and the grandest hotel the world 
has ever seen — for where is there a rival to the 
" Grand Hotel du Louvre," with its 1,000 beds, and 
furnished like a royal palace? It can never pay, yet 
always full ! 

Pereire and the Directors got 10 per cent, on all 
these sums. Last week down came one of the clique 
for $4,000,000 ! M. Thurneyssen has just stepped over 
to America, leaving some wealthy Poles and others 
minus that little amount. Last year another Direc- 
tor failed for a similar sum. M. Place's liabilities 
were $4,500,000. Yet Pereire writes most indignantly 
to the Globe, and the Globe retorts with needles. 

Pereire has been before the government to advise 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 123 

Upon the extension of the capital of the Bank of 
France. He disapproves of it ; so does his old em- 
ployer and present rival, Rothschild. How strange they 
should give the same testimony ! " Steam and credit, " 
said Pereire, in his railway speech, " are the revolu- 
tionizers of men." All beautiful in theory, says the 
Constitutionnel) but bad, the way he practices it. He 
has spread widely the passion for gambling. This child 
of government {Credit Mobilier) has grown too rap- 
idly for its founders — now nothing stops its power — « 
Napoleon even is too deeply involved to control it. 
Do not the statistics in the report show it ? Smaller 
minds copy the speculations of the Directors. Far- 
mers leave their fields to dabble in the stocks — work- 
men flood the towns to earn higher wages, and lose 
their gains in the dazzle of the lottery! Financial 
affairs in France must cause the Emperor some sleep* 
less nights, for his crown depends upon tranquility on 
the Bourse; $20,000,000 increase in the capital of 
the Bank of France will only inflate the more. The 
government demand $17,000,000 at once on treasury 
bonds ; subscribers pay the money to the Bank, the 
Bank lends to the government, and by-and-by it may 
get back again to the people— meanwhile it draws 
away the cash and adds to the pressure. Is it a loan 
in disguise? It looks like it. The present Act ex- 



i24 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET 

pires 31st January, 1867 — now 'tis to be prolonged 
for thirty years, say worked out in 1897 — the old 
Jaws of 22d of April, 1806, and 30th of June, 1840, 
will fall into the new charter. The Bank of France 
has weathered all storms handsomely. The fifteen 
years' war did not break it — 1830 came, then 1848 , 
when government authorized suspension of cash pay- 
ments — its affairs grew worse in 1849 — yet France has 
maintained her credit since Napoleon first organized 
the Institution. Its transactions are enormous- — last 
year they add up to $1,115,500,000! The bills melt- 
ed were $883,900,000 ! The net profits for the twelve 
months were $6,750,000, and the dividends range from 
20 to 25 per cent, on the original value of shares, 
say $200. The new stock will be issued at a pre- 
mium of $20, or shares $220. 

French railways are still productive. The meeting 
of the Northern of France the other day showed evi- 
dent signs of being noisy — a shareholder asked about 
the 5,752 shares and 1,000 bonds stolen by Grelet 
and Carpentier. It opened up a painful subject, but 
the subject was soon put to bed. Baron James de 
Rothschild rose and said, that rather than have impu- 
tations cast upon the House of Rothschild, he would 
meet the loss himself, (cheers), and he paid for 5,071 
shares and 270 bonds then and there ! So the Roths- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 125 

childs are one million of dollars out on that specula- 
tion. 

The discussion regarding the falling off in popula- 
tion in France has brought out some strange facts. 
During the five years ending 1856, the increase has 
been but 256,000; same time ending '46, gave 1,170,- 
000. In 1790, the population of France amounted to 
26,500,000, at which period England and Ireland had 
but 14,000,000 inhabitants ; now mark the comparison — 
sixty-seven years have wrought a wonderful change. 
Great Britain has furnished material for America and 
Australia, yet, notwithstanding the drain, has doubled 
her home population ; while France, who has done 
little towards peopling her own or other countries, has 
added but thirty-five per cent, to her tables ! In 1854 
and ^55, the deaths exceeded births ! 56 out of the 
86 departments in France show a palpable falling off 
in population. 

France, under the elder Bourbons, flourished in colonies, 
in manufactories, in agriculture, and tried to extend her 
commerce ; but war opened the century, and now each 
year shows a decline in numbers ! After years will 
give the results of the present reign. To-day we 
cannot see them — for the Bourse occupies writers and 
statesmen. France is living a dream-life. One in- 
dividual carries the nation! — what an Atlas load! 



126 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



Napoleon appears still the friend of England. France 
can never be — a different creed — another language — 
looser morals — the galling recollections of conquest and 
defeat — long and blood?/ battles — have engendered 
enmity on both sides. But policy binds the lilies 
round the lion's neck. That wreath of flowers is 
full of therms ! France revels in her present luxury. 
Palaces are being built for the rich, but no schools 
for the poor. Secret societies hold their midnight 
meetings. The love-paths of the Emperor are full of 
man-traps and spring-guns. That ravishingly beauti- 
ful Castilignoni may herself be one of the league : 
yet the Emperor sneers at danger and dictates to the 
world! He sees deserted fields — a smothered press — 
literature declining — and the vital spark of educa- 
tion and religion ebbing away ; but ivhat does he 



care 



? 



He rules supreme. Victoria goes to Paris at his 
beck. To one king he says " Do this" and he doeth it ; 
to another, " Do that" and it is done. To Frederick 
William, " Sell your birth-right for a mess of potage." 
To Alexander, "Makepeace," and he made it. To the 
Persian Envoy, " Sign the paper with England," and he 
put his name to the treaty. To P aimer ston, " Leave the 
King of Naples alone for a while," and the Premier was 
most obedient. To the Duke of Valencia, "Hold your 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 127 

ground in Spain" and Narvaez is still the guiding 
mind of the Cabinet. To Switzerland, " Accept the 
terms of the Prussian monarch," and Neufchatel is 
patched up. To the Pope, " Fear not, my soldiers 
shall protect you." To England, " Go ahead in China." 
To America, "Be respectful." To the crown-heads of 
Europe, " Come and see me at the Tuileries" and 
they all accept the invitation. One after another 
botes before this child of fortune — the man of destiny 
of the nineteenth century ! 

While numbers in France decline, the census in 
England augments : — 

In 1828 the population of the United Kingdom was 23,237.853 

1842 27,102,50* 

1856 — - 29,000,000 

The increase the last fourteen years is 100 per cent. 
less than during the first, but it must be remem- 
bered that emigration latterly has thinned the ranks. 
During the past ten years, 2,800,000 people left the 
mother country, against 856,392, as the total emigra- 
tion for the preceding ten. 

The annual report of the Postmaster- General records 
the epistolary correspondence of the kingdom. The 
extensive arrangements of the department can be esti- 
mated by noting that letters are daily sent over 61,000 



128 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

miles inland ; — 478,000,000 letters passed through the 
Post-office in 1856, being an increase of 22,000,000 
over 1855. In 1839 there were but 76,000,000. Eng- 
land averages 20 to each person. London takes 40. 

The Board of Trade Returns for the last four months 
are worth perusing. Each month the tables grow 
larger. Take, for comparison, total exports for the 
four months ending — 

1st May 1855 __ $134,000,000 

" 1856 - 173,000,0CO 

" 1857 __ 194,000,000 

Which shows an increase of 12 per cent, over 1856, 
and 40 per cent, over 1855. The chief items of in- 
crease are worsted stuffs, iron of all kinds, woolen, 
linen, and cotton yarn, machinery, and coals. At the 
above average the exports of Great Britain this year 
will amount to $582,000,000. America exports staples 
■ — England, save iron and coal, the productions of 
other lands. She takes raw material, and gives manufac- 
tured value. Were he to live upon what he produced 
John Bull would soon be a Calvin Edson. Since 
1842, British exports, under free trade, have increased 
145 per cent. America, during the same time, has 
increased hers 212 per cent, by protection. 

The Merchant Shipping Act of 1854 gets hard rubs 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 129 

on all sides. Chambers of Commerce and Boards of 
Trade are indignant. All pronounce it arbitrary and 
unjust. They argue with effect that it is absurd to 
place the interests of the merchant marine in the hands 
of two justices of the peace, who know nothing of 
nautical matters. Military misdemeanors are tried by 
military officers — the merchants likewise wish to be 
judged by their peers. 

Gruano — how long is it to last ? Are the deposits 
giving out ? These questions occupy attention. Senor 
Elias, in his letter to President Echeneque, in 1853, 
said that eight years more would work them out. That 
survey mentioned two rocks in sight — one 30 feet high, 
another, on the northern island, of 10 feet. During 
1851-2, he says that 2,085,000 tons were taken away. 
A month after the above survey, by order of Admiral 
Moresby, Mr. Mcintosh examined the islands, and re- 
ported a supply of at least nine years. Towards the 
close of the same year a commission was appointed 
to make an accurate survey : — 

They report an estimate of tons remaining, 12,376.100 

Mcintosh's calculation was 8,600,000 

While Senor Rivero, in 1846, said 18,250,000 

According to their estimates their is still some em- 
ployment left on the Pacific coast for shipping. 'Tis 

6* 



130 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

a mistake to suppose that the English bondholders 
have a lien on the guano deposits : their hold is only 
on the net proceeds of guano consumed in the United 
Kingdom. Therefore if the new chief, Yivanco, con- 
tinues to sell for cash at the islands, where are the 
bondholders ! He will not only pocket the cash for 
the guano, but all the stealings — all the commissions 
within commissions. 

The Debats publishes some interesting facts regard- 
ing marine losses. Of the 32,000 to 34,000 vessels, 
of all nations, on the seas — 

In 1852 there were lost vessels, 1,850 

1853 ___ __ __ _ 1,610 

1854 __...... 2,120 

1855 " 1,982 

1856 « — .. 2,124 

The majority of accidents were in December and the 
winter months. Steam adds heavily to the collision 
risks. 

The English Grovernment have respectfully retired 
before the resentment and brave protest of another 
colony. Lord Clarendon has annulled the convention 
with France of 14th January, 1857, in relation to the 
fisheries of Newfoundland. The colonists were almost 
in revolt— -speeches, letters, and protests, were hurled 
over the water. The flag went up union down. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 131 

France takes pride in her Atlantic fisheries ; for 
300 years she has been enriched by them. In 1630 
England began to supply the Spanish and Italian mar- 
ket, when the French, not liking such competition, 
introduced the bounty system — five shillings a quintal 
was a powerful protection. In 1777, 20,000 French 
seamen were employed upon the coast ; but the revo- 
lution of 1793 cut off the bounties, and the number 
of seamen fell away to 3,897. Then the English 
sprang ahead, and for twenty years they profited by 
the change. In 1814 England exported $15,000,000 
of fish ; then came the peace, revival of the bounties, 
and now the French have some 500 square-rigged 
vessels and 30,000 seamen, all hard at work, catching, 
salting, and packing. 'Tis the nursery of the French 
navy. 

The treaty of Utrecht ceded Newfoundland to Great 
Britain, but the French fishermen were allowed to 
fish from Cape Bonavesta to Pointe Riche. In 1763 
the treaty of Paris gave the islands of St, Pierre and 
Miquelon to France, but neither treaty permitted her 
to fortify. The privileges were confirmed by the trea- 
ties of Versailles in 1783, (a memorable year to an 
American,) and of Paris in 1814-15 — notwithstanding 
which the French and British fishermen have been 
continually warring with each other. It seems that 



132 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

lately France wished another slice, and England gave 
it conditionally. Newfoundland howled down the pro- 
position, and the colonists' decision is respected. The 
United Sates some time since got what they desired, 
hut 'twas like pulling an eye-tooth. 

Lady Franklin mourns over the dead more than 
most wives respect the living. Another expedition is 
heading towards the land immortalized hy Kane. Cap- 
tain McClintock, who, under Sir James Ross, in 
1848-9, again under Captain Austin, in 1850-1, and 
thirdly in 1852-3, in the " Antelope" and "Resolute," 
made voyages to the Arctic Seas, is about to give 
another search after the lost hushand. He might as 
well look for the steamer " Pacific." The Government 
declines further aid — they prohably think, with most 
sensible people, that the "Erebus" and "Terror" are 
among the things that were. 

On the ground of Arctic explorations, there is some 
reason in the demand for another trial ; already much 
good has arisen from previous expeditions. Among 
the results were Sir H. Gilbert's codfish discovery at 
Newfoundland ; ' Davis's West Greenland whale fishery ; 
Hudson's Bay Company's, under Sir John Ross ; 
Baffin's Bay fisheries ; Parr ay, Lancaster Sound, Barrow's 
Straits, and Prince Regent's Inlet ; Beechy and Behr- 
ing's Straits whale fisheries — where our American 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 133 

whalemen picked up some $8,000,000 worth of oil 
in two years. All these discoveries are the grounds 
upon which more money is asked for ; hut this time 
Lady Franklin must foot the hills. 

The Hudson's Bay Company's charter is hefore Parlia- 
ment, and now that the all-important hill for furnishing 
a house and home for the Princess Royal has passed, 
giving her $200,000 for a dowry, and an annuity of 
of $40,000, some legislation will he made on the 
Bank Act, and other important hills. The charter of 
Hudson's Bay Company dates hack to 1670, and ex- 
pires in 1859. They have had it their own way for 
a long time, hut now Western Canada says stop the 
monopoly. 

Contrary to my expectations the Russian railways 
are almost a dead letter. The Barinsfs brought all their 
Stock Exchange machinery to hear, hut the fourth es- 
tate was too powerful, and seemed to be moved by an 
unseen hand. The stock fell flat upon the market. 
'Twas no go from the start. Among the arguments 
against the enterprise were — high price of iron, no re- 
munerative traffic, only military roads, building esti- 
mate too low ; but strongest and most important, the 
low rate of interest guaranteed — a trifle less than five 
per cent. Those in favor said the track would pass 
through pasture lands — manufacturing, agricultural, and 



134 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

forest regions— that no tunnels were needed — few 
bridges required — sleepers cheap and on the spot, &o., 
&c. That the Prussian lines, opened in 1854, (2,300 
miles,) cost but $66,500 per mile— while $88,000 was 
the estimate for the Russian. Throughout the king- 
dom there was a continual cry against them — "Anti- 
English," said one and all. To outsiders the specula- 
tion looks bad ; but who can tell a banker's secrets ? 
The question arises : Who moved the press to write 
editorial on editorial ? Was it a burst of anti-Rus- 
sianism? Perhaps. More likely another agent was at 
work — but no matter. The shares were issued at the 
same time at fixed exchange — in St. Petersburg, 125 
silver roubles ; Amsterdam, 236 Dutch guilders ; Ber- 
lin, 134 thalers ; at Paris, 500 francs, and £20 in 
London. 

The Grand Duke Constantine makes a short stay 
in England. The " frank and open-hearted sailor" 
likes Paris better. Peter the Great, 140 years ago, 
trod the same ground that the Grand Duke Constan- 
tine is over now. In May, 1717, the royal ship-car- 
penter visited France and England. In May, 1857, 
the Russian Admiral seems to have come on a similar 
errand. In 1782, the son of Catharine II., the Grand 
Duke Paul, came to France. In 1814, Alexander 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 135 

walked into Paris with Wellington. Now, Constantino 
is taking observations. 

D'lsraeli said the other day, that the railways of 
Spain, Austria, and India, were the fruits of Australian 
and Californian gold. England built hers before that 
day, and has constructed 8,500 miles of road at a 
cost of $1,500,000,000, on which they have some 
$400,000,000 debt. America's 25,000 miles cost some 
two-thirds of that amount, and the debt is about the 
same as the English. The total capital of 136 lines in 
Great Britain, in 1336, was : 

English lines $1,260,000,000 

Scotch 160,000,000 

Irish' 80,000,000 

The total traffic receipts in 1856, were 93,000,000 

The expenses — about 47 percent. — were 44,000.000 

In 1852, Canada had no railways, but now they 
have 1,500 miles in operation, and 500 more under 
way. The cost of the Grrand Trunk line must have 
disappointed its originators. The estimate of $15,000,000 
seems to have turned out to be $45,000,000, and the 
cry is still for more. 

Just now the India railways are making a great 
racket. "W. P. Andrews is continually before the pub- 
lic. The papers are full of railways in India, and the 



136 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

scheme has been well pushed. Question on question — 
answer and a new suggestion — now 'tis an editorial- 
then in the money article — a never-ending advertise- 
ment. This is the track : 

Miles. Days. 
London to Trieste, a continuous rail, after skipping 
over the Channel to Marseilles — then road on 

road, a complete chain to the Adriatic... ' 1,300 2 

Trieste to Seleucia, the old Mediterranean port, by 

steam 1,600 6J- 

Seleucia to Ja'fer Castle, on the Euphrates, by rail.. 100 £ 

Ja'fer Castle to Bussorah, by steam 715 3£ 

Bussorah to Kurrachee, by steam 1,000 4 

Say to India from London, 4,715 miles, in 15 days 
8 hours ! This certainly is one of the startling pro- 
jects of the day. Like the Atlantic Cahle, the Pa- 
cific Railway, the Suez Canal, the " Great Eastern " — ■ 
this cross-country path to India is an undertaking 
that dazzles all minds. All this requires immense 
sums of money — railways must he paid for. If Eng- 
land alone required $1,500,000,000, America $1,000,000,- 
000, what will meet the wants of Europe and of Asia? 

The Star of Empire now takes its way Eastward, 
instead of Westward. America is already on the bor- 
ders of the Pacific, but England is not at Pekin. 
The Orient is full of cares to her — mutiny among the 
Sepoys is no little cause of anxiety. In 1806 the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 137 

troops refused to go to sea — now 'tis the Enfield rifle 
cartridge. The 19th is disbanded at Moorshedabad. 
The 31th are equally mutinous. England's great power 
there is in the Indian army. A general mutiny, and 
India will require European regiments. She may be 
slumbering on a volcano. 

All eyes turn to China. England is in earnest 
now. At first it was an election dodge — now 'tis war. 
Formosa, which was annexed to China by Khang Hi 
in 1683, will be the first to fall.' The Americans 
have had some trade there. Afterwards, Chusan, for 
a military station. England never liked the idea of 
bein^ isolated at Honsr Konof. China managed that 
well. China is surrounded by royal buccaneers, and 
all the world want a share of the booty. The troops 
of England are arriving. Lord Elgin has passed Sin- 
gapore. The French ambassador is on his way through 
Egypt, and Mr. Reed is packing up his trunk. 

England, France, and America are no mean foes. 
But the half has not been told. Portugal — yes, little, 
almost forgotten Portugal — is despatching some 500 
troops to Macao. Spain is about to strengthen the 
Manilla garrison. Austria is going out, and Prussia 
sends a ship or two, while, long since, Russia had an 
army on the frontier. Poor China, like a fox in the 
royal pack, must fight — fight hard, and die. All na- 



138 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

tions wait to see Asia split asunder — each expecting 
a share of the spoils. 

The war of 1842 was short and fierce. Three thou- 
sand English troops, in the face of the north-east 
monsoon, plunged into the coast ports, and one after 
another Shanghai, Amoy, Chusan, Ningpo, and Chapoo, 
fell, and British officers dictated peace — 200 miles up 
the Yang-tse-Kiang ; and when the document was 
signed, our Admiral quietly walked into the camp and 
asked the favor of a treaty. It was granted, and 
since then, look at the extent of the American trade. 
Shall there be Commissioners at Pekin ? Up to this 
time the Celestials have bagged the question. In 1260 
Nicholas and Marco Polo tried it, and in 1295 Marco 
Polo alone ; but " No ! " was r the reply. The Jesuitical 
Portuguese at Macao, in 1573, were not more fortu- 
nate. The Dutch, in 1655-95, also failed, and in 
1720 the Russian mission fared no better. Lord Ma- 
cartney was shamefully treated in 1795, and Lord Am- 
herst was kicked out in 1816. 

All these attempts to establish Ministers at the 
Chinese capital were introduced by liberal presents. 
The Emperor received them as tributes, and shut the 
door upon his foreign slaves! Cannon balls and bombs 
are now the tributes offered. Promises will not answer, 
and hard knocks must open the door. All former at. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 139 

tempts were commercial — ail failures. This is politi- 
cal, and nations are determined. The Rebels are join- 
ing hands and cause with the Imperialists, and the 
Chinese will fight and die. Yeh's orders are still to 
" Push the devils into the sea ! " Even Alum, (good 
name for a baker), and his " band of poisoners, are 
pronounced not guilty. 

The Chinese illustrate the horrors of war. Wherever 
they are settled, insurrections are taking place — at Pe- 
nang — at Singapore ; but more dreadful than all, in 
Borneo. That wonderful man, Sir James Brook, adds 
another thrilling chapter to his marvelous history. He 
eloquently paints the midnight attack, the surprise, the 
barbarous slaughter of innocent women and beautiful 
children, the defeat, and the rescue. Dark was the 
deed — awful the judgment! Headed by the Dyaks and 
Malays, the Chinese Kungsi were butchered like cattle. 
The few wretches who escaped the Europeans' revenge 
are starving in the jungle. The suddenness of the 
blow, the rapidity of the punishment, seems more like 
Eastern story. Rajah Brook's wild life in an island 
sea would furnish material for a dozen works of fiction. 
He possesses that Cortez and Pizarro fire which wakes 
up the heroic and the brave. "Walker, in Central Ame- 
rica, is striving to gain a similar reputation. The Ra- 
jah has again established his power, but he has still 
his traducers in England. Hume persecuted him till 



140 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

his death, and minor scribblers grumbled ; yet he has 
proved himself a great man. Such men should lead 
armies. Where is there a similar history ? 

Supremacy, dominion, lust for power, are the China- 
men's dreams. 'Tis constitutional hate — and Asiatic 
hate is poison. 

"With such intelligence arriving every mail, no won- 
der the money market continues in such a feverish 
state. Those who have notes to pay believe in better 
times — some say that high money will be permanent ; 
others prove that it must be temporary. The Times 
pronounces for high interest for several years — and who 
disputes the Times ? Nobody ; unless on " Railways 
and Revolvers in Georgia !" D'Israeli sees a great fall 
in the rate for money " looming in the future." I 
don't — I wish I could. Business matters still wear a 
sombre aspect. The cotton trade is working short — 
woolen factors are gloomy — people meet at Smithfield 
and cry for work. Frost is creeping among the vine- 
yards of France — she has turned importer instead of 
exporter. At Lancaster the mills are running forty 
hours per week. Exports are increasing — imports de- 
clining. The world at large owes England — England 
owes the banks — the banks hold the deposits of the 
people, and cannot stand a run — money, as before ; 
now, six-and-a-half at bank — the last was the forty- 
sixth change in rate since Peel's Bill of 1844 — all this, 



Young America in wall-street* 141 

and still consols at 94 ! I cannot see why they should 
not fall to 75. The English people like that dear debt 
— it holds them in solemn unity. Everybody buys con- 
sols — dowager ladies — East Indian pensioners — old people 
dying and leaving money in trust to buy them — all 
tends to absorb the funds — all artificial props : without 
them, down they go ! Three per cent, was once a good 
investment, when the rate was one-and-three-quarters — • 
not as now at seven per cent. This absorption of con- 
sols is the salvation of the English Government. Lon- 
don saps the kingdom. America is the only fire-proof 
Government afloat ! 

The terms dear and cheap, as applied to money, are 
much more to the point than scarce and plenty. When 
was there so much money as now ? and yet they say 
it is searce, instead of saying it is dear. Railway 
shares average four per cent. ; consols three-and-a-quar- 
ter ; money forced up to six-and-a-half at Bank of Eng- 
land ; while joint-stock banks declare dividends all the 
way from 10 to 20 per cent. ! The money-lender 
swallows up the borrower ; the bank eats up the trader ; 
new loan societies are springing up daily ; the State 
lends consols at three per cent., and borrows money at 
seven ! England is a mere house for the precious met- 
als — simply a common carrier for the world. 

Australian accounts are bad ; shippers looked at the 



142 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

$70,000,000 gold, not at population.; and as in 1853 
and 1854, the markets are overdone again! 

There is a money panic in Austria ; the workmen 
there are tired of receiving paper money — they demand 
metal ; and the Government has refused to sanction 
new share enterprises. The Austrian Bourse will ex- 
plode some fine morning. 

All through the railway mania, 1842 to 1849, in- 
terest ruled from two to eight per cent. — hullion fluc- 
tuated from $4,500,000 in 1842, to $33,000,000, in 
1847. This was before the gold. For a quarter of a 
century previous the amount never varied $5,000,000 ! 
In railway times the drain was inside of England's 
borders— now it goes abroad. England pays more for 
the raw material ; prices have been continually advanc- 
ing ; cotton, wool, and luxuries are higher ; tea, since 
1850, has advanced 100 per cent, in price in China ; 
and now England only gets half as much for her 
money as formerly— -she paying cash and giving credit. 

Having no national bank, many think that America 
will escape a national crisis. But England, ruled by 
the Bank of England, is in great danger. This in- 
stitution has passed through the fiercest fires in its 
life-time. 

The rumored invasion of the Pretender, in 1707 ? 
created a run ; again there was another rush in 1745 ; 
and when Napoleon was preparing to land on British 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 14 

soil in 1797, the bank suspended. The panic of 1825 
reduced its cash to $250,000. The lowest price that 
its stock has touched was 91 — the highest 299 ; while 
dividends have been declared from 4 to 21 per cent. 
Think of consols (only three per cents) at 94, and 
money at 6J per cent. ! Joint-stock banks allow 5-£- 
per cent, on deposits, and loan at 8 per cent., taking 
consols for security ! Consols at 93 and 94, while 
French rentes (bearing same interest) are 69 ! Twenty- 
five per cent, difference ! Such is the solidity of the 
English Government ! 

England imports annually about $140,000,000 bullion 
— yet 'tis all drained away. February 20, 1844, there 
were $81,000,000 in the vaults of the Bank— to-day 7 
some $45,000,000 ; while exports walk rapidly on from 
year to year, and the circulation of notes now is about 
the same as then. Therefore, look at the credit of the 
kingdom — one thousand millions of dollars in paper afloat 
at one time ! Think of the financiering — the renewals I 
Modern inventions economize capital — one steam-engine 
is worth a thousand men and half as many horses. Ex- 
changes — clearing-houses — pass amounts from hand to 
hand with increasing facility. Since General Jacksorts 
day neiv machinery has been invented — new wheels are 
turning. Through these inventions one million notes and 
bullion will go as far as two millions did twenty years 
ago ago. A single sixpence at a whist-table will pass 



144 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

from one to another in the room, and answer the purpose 
of cancelling twenty accounts — such is the beauty of ex« 
change. Dear money falls on the consumer — not the 
trader — like a high tariff. What is it to the merchant 
whether he pays 6 or 12 per cent. ? He will charge the 
difference to his customer. " Cheap money gives you 
the world's commerce ; make it dear and you will lose 
it"— said Rothschild before the Government committee, 

How singular that Ireland and Scotland, both under 
the same Parliament, should have a different currency 
from England — and yet only twelve hours apart. 

Duncan argues in favor of paper currency. He says 
that it broke Napoleon at Leipsic when the Allied 
Powers raised the wind by issuing notes ; that paper 
money enabled Frederick to raise Prussia from misery 
to opulence ; that paper money built Scotland, where 
for one hundred and fifty years it has proved a bles- 
sing. He, however, does not mention the little history 
connected with our Continental paper money — with 
French assignats, and the depreciated notes of Austria 
and of Russia ! Miller says, that from 1797 to 1844, 
some five hundred Banks failed in England, while 
but six stopped in Scotland ! 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in Par- 
liament, on the Savings Bank Bill, that at the close 
of 1856 there were no less than 1,339,00,0 deposi- 
tors, to whom the Banks owed $174,000,000 ! During 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL*STREET. 145 

the year 1,409,000, amounting to $38,000,000, in 
sums of about $25, and 793,000 withdrawals, amount- 
ing to $40,000,000, in sums averaging $50. This 
statement shows the magnitude of the Savings Banks' 
operations. 

I spoke of dull markets in Melbourne — note these 
figures : Imports from 10th Janury to 7th March, 1857, 
two months, $18,000,000; exports, $12,000,000; giv- 
ing an average annual excess of imports over exports 
of nearly $36,000,000 ! The colony continues to pour 
out gold, and will. During 1856, the production of 
Victoria was one hundred and forty-seven tons weight — 
twenty-four tons more than the previous year ; 3,533,- 
527 ozs., at 80s., equal to $70,000,000 -.—almost equal 
to the famous year 1852, when we got 4,247,152 
ozs., at 70s., equal to $74,000,000. 

The cotton supply creates much comment — like Lord 
Napier's New- York speech — the European papers do 
not understand it. The Constitutional sneeringly writes, 
u that the bonds of friendship that are being cele- 
brated are not chains of flowers, but simply twists 
of cotton that supply the Manchester market." 

You will have later dates than I can send from 
Italy ; but from this distance the money market ap- 
pears no better. The cord tightens — not yet snapped; 
the bowl fills — not yet overflown. I do not write to 

7 



146 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

point out hidden rocks in still waters, but to the 
actual breakers which we see on our lee. The storm 
once over we may hope for better prospects. 

The mammoth wonder of the century, the Great 
Eastern, progresses slowly towards completion. Think 
of this leviathan — notice her dimensions — length 692 
feet ; breadth, 83 feet, and 120 over paddle-boxes ; 
8,000 tons of iron consumed in the 30,000 plates 
which compose her hull. She is 23,000 tons, or 18,000 
tons larger than the largest ship afloat ; with six 
masts — such masts ! — ten anchors — and such anchors ! 
twenty long-boats, and two seventy-ton propellers ! She 
accommodates 4,000 passengers, and could, upon a 
pinch, take 10,000 troops ! They say she will be 
launched in August, and that you will see her at 
Portland in October. Three hundred and sixty-five 
years before, a sailor from this same land crossed the 
ocean in a cockle-shell of a boat — for the Mayflower 
of 1620 was not much else. All the world wonders, 
while Europe looks at the critical state of the na- 
tions, all of which are volcanic ! 

The Papal Government moves with Mohammedan 
Turkey against Christian Grreece— the Pope's tempo- 
ral power smothers Italian liberty — Hellenic Russia 
against Catholic Poland — despotic Austria trampling un- 
der foot the national rights of Italy — perjured Bour- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL- STREET. 147 

bons against the pledged liberties of their people ! The 
European monarchs promised their subjects everything 
to conquer Napoleon— when conquered, they laughed, and 
performed not. Now all the world waits for another 
chapter. The balls still rattle harmlessly against the 
shirt of mail of the only man in Europe who can stem 
the tide of Revolution. Napoleon dead, and anarchy 
again. All this bears upon the money market. Who 
wonders at hard times? 



ARTICLE VII. 

Venice, quaint and old — Commerce dead — Manufactures — Artesian Wells 
— The singular instinct of the City Pigeon — Italian Bankers — Dili- 
gence and Railway — Florence — Terrific accident at Leghorn — Jour- 
nals silent on the subject — Bologna — Arrive in time to see the 
Pope — Festival of Corpus Domini — Discontent among the People — 
Ripe for Revolution — Napoleon's old General — No Life in Italy — 
Wail of a dying Nation. 

Venice, June 15th, 1857. 

My Dear Sir : — What a quaint old city is Venice ! 
So odd, so singular in construction, so unlike all other 
places. China is most eccentric ; all Eastern nations 
turn upside down our Western notions ; while in 
Australia the animal and vegetable kingdoms compete 
in changing nature from right to left. Bat here, in 
Venice, you will find another chapter, equally pecu- 
liar — where the land is water ; the streets are canals ; 
its carriages are boats ; its horses are men ; its hotels 
are palaces ! The poor fugitives from AttiJa's conquest 
were hard pushed for a township when they selected 



150 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

these seventy-two islands for a site. Commerce did it. 
Nothing else could have driven such piles and placed 
such stones, in building up this " glorious city in the 
sea ;" where four thousand gondolas, in dark, funereal 
garb, steal noiselessly along the one hundred and forty- 
six canals that branch out of the main stream, and 
creep so silently round the corners of the moss-greened 
walls, and under the three hundred and six bridges 
that cross and recross the city everywhere. How beau- 
tifully Rogers paints it ! and Byron, too. But, without 
a spark of poetry, and accustomed to the noisy din of 
great cities, where carts, and carriages, and horses, 
and busy humanity make the welkin ring with indus- 
try, I could not live in Venice. And yet you see the 
foot-prints of a once grand commerce — once the com- 
merce of the world ! She possessed it for a time, grew 
rich, built marble palaces in the ocean, became in- 
dolent in prosperity, and lost it. Holland, Spain, and 
Portugal picked it up, and they, too, have carelessly 
let the jewel, that gave luster to their reigns, slip 
away, and now they are all dying out together. Eng- 
land found it, and filled her treasuries. America 
watched ; worked hard ; slept little ; discovered the 
secret, and now comes the struggle — America or Eng- 
land. Who doubts the result ? Already we are some 
hundred thousand tons of shipping in advance of 
those who taught us the road to fame ! 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 151 

Venice was all powerful in the days of the Lom- 
bards, now she lives but in books. A few small ships 
are on the stocks, and boats in numbers ; for, besides 
the fishing smacks, Venice has some 30,000 tons of 
shipping in the coasting trade. Lately the channel 
near the Malamocco Pass has been deepened, and now 
you can take in fifteen feet of water, but you must 
have a pilot. Although Venice is a free port, it does 
not thrive under the Austrian's despotism ; besides, 
Trieste draws away all Government patronage, and 
pockets all the profits. 

Save the few cargoes of fish, and the iron and coal 
that return in payment, England and Venice have 
little sympathy. The Grecian, Dalmatian, and Austrian 
connections are much more important. Some four or 
five thousand people find employment in her glass 
works, in making mirrors, artificial gems and beads 
and pearls, gold and silver work, velvets, and some 
few silks and laces. The sugar ' refineries and sperma- 
ceti works also assist in endeavoring to galvanize life 
in this extraordinary city, where a population of one 
hundred and six thousand people look back with ances- 
tral pride to the glory of the Doges, who, in wedding 
the sea, dazzled Europe by the gorgeousness of the 
pageant ! 

Artesian wells supply tolerably good drinking water, 



152 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

and everything eatable must come from off the neigh- 
boring islands. The railway bridge was expensive, but 
how superior to making the distance in a gondola I 
You may ride on the rail all the way to Milan, save 
a short shake in the diligence. The house of Titian, 
the " Bridge of Sighs," and the palaces built a thou- 
sand years ago, all fade before the brilliancy of the 
the San Marco-— the only place in Venice where the 
stranger is reminded of a living city ; for here the 
band at evening draws the rich and the poor. Else- 
where, you may look from the windows of the palaces, 
from the squares, from the bridges and the boats, and 
nothing reminds you of other lands — nor horse, nor 
ox, nor ass, nor anything like cities not built in 
water, meets your wondering gaze ! But of all strange 
sights there's naught so marked as the animal instinct 
of the city pigeon. 

As Rome was saved by the cackling geese, so 
Venice was warned of the enemy by a pigeon from 
the main. 'Twas centuries ago, yet the Venetians 
have not forgotten it, and to-day the bird is as sacred 
as a family picture. Government protected them ; in- 
dividuals fed them p and at two o'clock, on the strik- 
ing of the old town bell, you see them flocking from 
all quarters to the San Marco, where they are sure 
to find (only at that hour and minute) their expected 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 153 

food. Small as was the spectacle, I enjoyed it much, 
for it portrays the instinct of nature. 

When in Venice, take your credits and circular let- 
ters to an English banker, for the Italians here do 
not seem to have improved in civility since Shylock 
talked ducats and daggers with Antonio on the Rialto. 

Thirty-six hours diligencing from Rome (where I 
mailed a package for the " Magazine," on Southern Italy 
and Western Europe) brought us to Florence, the city 
so delightfully situated, so beloved by strangers as 
well as Italians. It takes one hundred hours with 
the vetturini, and a day less in a post-carriage, but 
the courier's conveyance even beats the diligence. 

You will find railways at Forence branching out 
to several cities — to Leghorn, at three hours' ride 
through a most fertile, picturesque country — to Pisa, 
where the old tower still bends apparently with age 
— to Lucca, for sea bathing — to Sienna, Empoli, and 
Pistori — quite a net- work of rail. Florence numbers 
a population exceeding that of Venice by some ten 
thousand persons. They have quite an English colony 
here, and a dozen or more American families. Here 
Jarvis employs his pen, and Powers, for nineteen 
years, his chisel ; while Livingston's ambition is driv- 
ing all the way from four in hand to twelve ! 

Of all Italian cities, give me Florence for a home. 

7* 



154 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Healthy, not expensive, delightfully situated, rich in 
natural beauty if not in historical association, within 
a two-hours ride of Fiesole, and boasting the most beauti- 
ful forest drive in the world — the Cascine. The Grand 
Duke and all the Royal family give tone to the even- 
ing drive ; but I little thought, when seeing them 
on the parade, that so soon the Grand Duchess was to 
lay in the tomb of the princes. 

The hotels on the Arno are the most patronized ; and 
for two-thirds what it costs in England or America, 
you may pass a year most agreeably in Florence. 

The Italian journals are as speechless as those of 
France, else I would not here record the terrible 
calamity that has clothed in mourning the city of Leg- 
horn. Thank (rod I was absent from the theatre that 
night ; but those present have told me of the catastrophe. 
The house was Growded — the play, the " Taking of 
Sebastopol." The first acts went off well ; battery 
after battery exploded ; and the thrilling spectacle 
made the theatre ring with applause All eyes were 
turned to see them take the MalakofT. At last 'twas 
stormed. The soldiers rush in — then the explosion — - 
amid the wildest cheers. At that moment a spark 
caught the scenes — they blazed — the audience thought 
it a part of the play, and cheered the louder, the 
scene was so natural ! Alas ! it was too perfect. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 155 

Another moment they saw their mistake — a wild cry 
of terror drowned the applause. Higher and higher it 
rose, maddening the spectators with fright. Five min- 
utes more and the fire was extinguished ; hut the au- 
dience, like a herd of frightened buffaloes, like a panic- 
stricken army, like a flock of sheep hefore the wolves, 
like passengers from a sinking ship, losing all thought 
but for self-preservation, rushed from their seats. The 
shrieks of women, the shrill cry of children, the hoarse 
voices of the men, all struggling for life, presented a 
scene indescribable. Some threw themselves from the 
boxes into the pit, killing themselves and crushing 
those beneath them ! No judgment — no forethought ; 
out of the windows — over the loges — stamping each 
other to death! The sentinels were ordered to stop 
the passage with bayonets. A few of the flying 
crowd were run through and through, then the soldiers 
with the rest were mutilated with the feet of hun- 
dreds ! 

I look in vain in the Italian journals ; the Tuscan 
Minister says forty killed, one hundred wounded. The 
next day I expected more particulars — I found none, 
and asked the reason. The Government forbade it, 
was the reply — -such things excite the people these re- 
volutionary times. The Grrand Duke has gone down, 
but you have heard all it is intended you shall ever 



156 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

know. But my banker, Fenzi, has shown me a pri- 
vate letter. It paints the horrors of the accident, and 
closes the letter — one hundred already dead, and five 
hundred wounded. "Worse than the Black Hole at Cal- 
cutta, or the lire at Richmond — more mortality than is 
recorded off the battle-field — or a Coolie passenger ship ! 

We arrived at Bologna just in time to see the Pope 
leading off the great festival of Corpus Domini. We 
drove through one of the twelve large gates, and it 
appeared as though the entire seventy-two thousand 
people in the city were out to meet his Holiness. The 
town is old, dirty, and full of churches, priests, and 
convents. In 1848, the Bolognese made the Pope 
tremble — now he is not the most beloved of saints. 
What an odd idea — for the Austrian general in com- 
mand to get up a little insurrection, and quell it, to 
amuse the Pontiff ! 

Just now he is flooded with petitions. The govern- 
ment officers want increased pay — the people pray for 
reduced taxes. These continual demands trouble the 
Pope. He pardons individual cases, but declines to give 
a general amnesty. He is particularly anxious to please 
the Bolognese, for they have furnished Rome with six 
Popes and more than a hundred Cardinals ! We rode 
through Mantua, where Napoleon's marshal, Serrurier, 
starved the Austrian general, Wurmser, into capitulat- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 157 

ing, but not till (like General Williams at Kars) the 
old soldier had eaten all his horses and cattle. Here 
we took the railway to Verona, an old Italian city of 
sixty-five thousand people, where you will find ruins 
more perfect than at Rome ; and three hours later we 
took the omnibus (a boat) for our hotel on the grand 
canal. 

From north to south, the Italian States, save San 
Marino, are governed by absolute monarchs ; eight of 
them in all, with nothing in common but their religion. 
Their laws, their customs, their currency, their very 
language, are different. There is no unity of action in 
the land — no energy — no life — and I doubt if one ruler 
for all the States would give contentment to a people 
that cease to think for themselves. Foreign despots 
give their orders, and foreign armies execute them. 

You may bribe the custom-house ; you may fee the 
beggars ; you may sneer at the priesthood, and swear 
at the boatmen ; England may threaten, France dic- 
tate, and Austria interfere ; and Italy will move on, 
with an occasional revolution bursting out, like the 
fire-fly, only to be darker after the blaze ; the stabbing 
of a king, the burning of a palace, the shooting of a 
garrison, and the breaking of a prison door ; but as 
for independence, self-government, liberal institutions — 
it will be a long time, I fear, before the Lilliputian 
emperors follow in the footsteps of the Sardinian king. 



158 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Italy* like Turkey, must share the fate of Poland, 
and some time be divided among the vultures that 
may ever be seen hovering over and around a dying 
nation. 

From Italy we go to Austria, and I will write a 
page or two from the capital. 



ARTICLE VIIL 

Trieste — Mixed Population — American Shipping — Austrian Lloyds — The 
Greeks the Richest Merchants — Griot and Chiozza — Eleven Hours 
to Laiback — The Quicksilver Mines of Idria— Annual Production — > 
Laiback to Grotz — Rock Cuttings — Wonderful Engineering Diffi- 
culties overcome — Grotz to Vienna — Arrive in time to Visit the 
Celebration of the Order of Maria Theresa — Vienna full of Stran- 
gers — Receive Invitation to the Entertainment — Midnight Serenade 
— Review of the Austrian Army — Magnificence of the Spectacle— 
The Pageant at the Theatre — Russian Nobility — Diamonds — Ex- 
citement of the Audience — Tableau seen but once in a Hundred 
Years — Devotion of the Nobles to the Imperial Family — Lord Sea- 
ton and Admiral Moresby, of England, present—Commodore Breeze 
of the United States Navy, and the Emperor — Tomb of the Haps- 
burgs — Maria Louisa, and her Son, Napoleon Second — Brighter 
View of Austria and the Austrians since the Change of the 
Passport System — National Education — Hospitals — Miss Dix — Credit 
Mobilier, and the Concordat — Embarrassed State of the Austrian 
Finances — Deficit after Deficit calls for Loan after Loan — Bullion 
in National Bank lying Idle — The Jesuits — Emperor's Visit to 
Italy and Hungary — Death of his Child — America sees Europe 
through English Eyes— The Emperor Nicholas the First Mind of 
Europe. 

Vienna, July 25th, 1857. 

My Dear Sir : — Trieste, like Venice, is a free port. 
Planted just under a range of mountains at the head of 



160 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

the Adriatic, it grows in prosperity, and some day will 
rise to importance, for it is the only outlet on the south 
for the commerce of Austria and Germany. 

When the Emperor Charles VI., in 1719, removed all 
port charges, the population was but four thousand, now 
'tis eighty-one thousand, made up of all nations — mer- 
chants from every land, Saxon, Swiss, English, French, 
Bavarians, Swabians, Rhinelanders, Greeks, Romans, 
Neapolitans, and Levanters — are all represented by their 
respective consuls. I believe there are but one or two 
Americans, although I counted eleven American ships 
turning out tobacco and cotton, under the guns of the 
frigate "Congress," on her way to Constantinople. Some 
sixty or seventy American ships bring cargoes yearly 
to Trieste, and find some employment in return. 

Here is the depot of the Austrian Lloyd's, the steam 
line that keeps pace with the French and English 
companies. Many of the steamers were built in Scot- 
land. Freiherr Von Bruck was the founder of the en- 
terprise, which has been one of the most successful in 
Austrian commerce. Last year the imports and exports 
of the port, in round numbers, ran up to $50,000,000, 
and when Austria branches out to India and China, as 
she is desirous of doing, Trieste is well situated to 
increase her trade. The inner harbor will accommodate 
but fifty ships, but outside there is room to anchor a 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 161 

navy. The canal in the city is very handy ; you can tip 
the goods from the boats into the doors of the warehouses. 
As I before remarked, Trieste contains all the many- 
featured, many-costumed merchants of the Levant. In 
such a Babel of tongues, Elihu Burrett would almost 
require a dragoman. 

England, Brazil, the isles of the Mediterranean, and 
Alexandria, supply the commerce, Great Britain, as 
usual, taking the lead ; but New-Orleans does consi- 
derable in cotton and tobacco. Saltpetre, gunpowder, 
salt, and tobacco, continue government monopolies. 
Trieste boasts a Tribunal of Commerce, a School of 
Navigation, and Imperial Dockyards. The Mole is 
some sixty feet in width, and extends from the end 
of the town some twenty-two hundred feet into the 
Adriatic, entirely built of stone- — a splendid piece of 
masonry. Trieste is to the Austrian Lloyd's what 
Marseilles is to the Imperial Mail Line, and South- 
ampton to the Peninsular and Oriental Company. 

The Greeks, as usual, are the most active among 
the merchants. With houses in New Orleans and Man- 
chester, they manage cotton and cotton goods, regulate 
exchanges, and grow rich. M. Chiozza's soap factory 
is worth a visit ; 'tis the largest in the Empire. Griot 
and Chiozza live in palaces built with soap ! Carciotti 



162 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



commenced with a bale of Yankee cotton, and died 
leaving millions. 

Eleven hours diligencing over cultivated mountains 
and sterile plains, rocky, desolate hills and fertile val- 
leys, brought us to Laiback. A month later you can 
go by rail ; as it is, I made the journey last year from 
Trieste to Liverpool in less than a hundred hours. When 
the road is opened, the express will run through to 
Trieste from here in eighteen hours, a distance of 336 
miles. Our baggage was checked through, but over 
twenty pounds weight is extra. The highlands over- 
hanging Trieste, with the active bustle of a seaport 
city at their base, looking out along the Dalmatian 
and Italian coasts, present a scene unsurpassed for 
natural beauty — wiidness and sublimity everywhere 
around. The table-land along the post road is as bar- 
ren as the Indian hills, and the rocks about the old 
castle of Lueg are honeycombed with caves like those 
at Inkermann. Not far distant, nature opens a mam- 
moth cave, the most wonderful grotto in Europe, that 
at Adelsburg, and close at hand you step down some 
757 steps, hewn out of solid rock, into the quicksilver 
mines of Idria, one hundred and forty fathoms deep. 
These celebrated mines have proved nearly as rich as 
those of Almada, in Spain. Six hundred tons a year 
could be produced, but the Austrian Government re- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 163 

strict it to one hundred and fifty, most of which is con- 
sumed by the American gold and silver mines. It finds 
its way over the Atlantic in cast-iron bottles, while 
bags of skin, steeped in alum, take the balance to 
Vienna. 

The twenty thousand people that compose the popula- 
tion at Laiback, are anticipating joyful times when 
the Emperor goes down next month to inaugurate the 
opening of the railway. 

From Laiback to Grratz, our track seemed to be a 
continual cutting of rock, a road where tunnels and 
viaducts were the chief characteristics. From Grratz 
to Vienna, the scenery opens with a classic grandeur — 
towering cliffs, sharp defiles, deep cuttings through 
the mountains of rock, abrupt precipices, interspersed 
with artificial forests, and ripening fields of grain, fore- 
telling a good harvest in Austria. 

At Serumering the tunnel is cut 4,600 feet through 
a solid rock, 2,893 feet above the ocean — the highest 
railway in the world. The turnpike road is 400 feet 
above this ! 

The precipices of Weinzetteiwand have had three tun- 
nels cut through them. Then comes more engineering ; 
the viaducts of Grampelgraben and Jagergraben, the 
Klam tunnel, rivers crossed, deep gullies bridged, 
mountains undermined, splendid forest trees in the dis- 



164 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

tance — all bespeaking human skill — almost, yes, quite, 
the subjugation of nature. Nothing in England or 
France can compare with this stupendous work. "Who 
says that Austria has no enterprise ? 

I arrived in Vienna at a memorable period in its his- 
tory, just in time to witness what no person now living 
will probably ever see again — the celebration of the Cen- 
tsnnial Anniversary of the High Order of Maria Theresa, 
the highest order in the world, given only to emperors, 
or the army and navy, for deeds of daring courage 
This is the first fete day, and all Austria has been 
called upon to make the occasion an era in the Empire's 
history. Vienna is packed with strangers ; hotels, 
Government buildings, palaces, and private dwellings, 
are glittering with uniforms, every nook and corner oc- 
cupied. The military are here by special order, and 
their presence fills the city, while the sight-seers must 
camp outside. 'Tis a gala day in Austria, occurring 
but once in many generatians, and the preparations are 
made accordingly. 

I was fortunate in receiving invitations where the 
doors were closed to civilians. First, I looked down 
from the saloons of the minister of war, on the mid- 
night serenade of the bands of the Empire — three hun- 
dred and fifty instruments, a torchlight procession, num- 
bering as many hundred thousand spectators. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 165 

The square was jammed with humanity," a Boston 
Common scene at the fireworks, on the Fourth. The 
martial music rilled the air, and you heard the notes 
for miles outside. 

The next day, the review of the Austrian army. I 
dare not mention the numher of troops ; but infantry, 
cavalry, artillery, covered a space that tired the sights 
presenting a military spectacle indescribable. The mag* 
nitude of Napoleon's regiments under exercise at Paris, 
astonished me. I was awed into silence when witness- 
ing the tactics of six immense armies — real, earnest, 
fighting armies, on the grave-yard plains of the Crimea. 
I have seen Russell's vivid description of the Coronation 
of Alexander at Moscow — but this review, you must 
remember, takes place but once in a hundred years. 

'Twas the grandest spectacle ever seen in Vienna, 
and in the apparent loyalty of the army, bespoke the 
absolutism of this remarkable Empire : remarkable for 
its antiquity, going back centuries before Rodolph of 
Hapsburg, even to the Caesars ; for Marcus Aurelius 
died on the old Roman station of Yidobono ; remarka- 
ble for having crushed to death all revolution, all hope 
of liberty ; remarkable for the wealth and haughty 
pride of its nobles ; remarkable for the number of times 
it has been conquered and regained its nationality, and 



166 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STftEEf . 

for having the credit of being the poorest, the most 
despotic, the most despised of European monarchies. 

The Emperor, surrounded by a staff of officers two 
hundred strong, the chief of the kingdom, received 
with dignity the acclamations of the dense mass of 
soldiers, whose cheers were echoed back by the people. 
That day the knights of the Order were entertained at 
the Emperor's banquet, and the celebration closed with 
the glorious pageant at the theatre. 

Again I am a witness to another, the last act in this 
splendid drama. I was early there and saw the pride 
of the Austrian nobility as they arrived. The house 
was crowded ; the boxes five tiers high, each seat occu- 
pied by a noble or knight of the Order. Save the diplo- 
matic corps, the door was shut to the civil world. 

The invitations came from the imperial palace ; they 
could not be bought or sold. Not one spare seat, and 
thousands sent away disappointed. The wealthiest dig- 
nitaries of the land were there — distinguished states- 
men, grey-headed generals, the hope and pride of the 
aristocracy, came in their coroneted carriages ; all the 
Esterhazys and Metternichs of Austria were there, each 
endeavoring to outshine the others in the richness of 
their dress, the brilliancy of their diamonds, and the 
number of their decorations. Hungarian chiefs, in that 
beautiful hussar dress, and Bohemian jagers, and the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 167 

uniforms of all the princes, gave a scenic effect to the 
house. 

The imperial box contained all the living members 
of the grand and kingly house of Hapsburg; the Em- 
peror's mother, the boy Emperor, almost beardless — his 
young and beautiful Empress, her sisters, brothers — all 
the royal family, blazing with diamonds and the 
choicest gems. 

The evening's entertainment was something entirely 
original. The programme was decidedly novel. First 
came a recitation in German, by a star actress ; she 
described the gradual rise of the kingdom from infancy, 
and then stepping aside, clouds appear passing and 
repassing, and, opening in the centre, you are aston- 
ished to see the Empress Maria Theresa and her 
court, as she appeared when she established the Or- 
der one hundred years ago — the same dress, the same 
statesmen — represented to life. The scene changes. 
Another recitation : she describes one of the early 
battles ; the audience are wrought up with enthusiasm 
— we hear the sound of battle ; the clashing of arms, 
the thunders of the real artillery, the shrieks of dying 
soldiers, the wild strains of martial music, the rattling 
of musketry, the trumpet-toned voice of command ; the 
spectators are crazed with the exciting sounds, when 
the curtain rises, and there you have a battle-field, 



168 



tOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET . 



Hundreds of men and officers in all and every attitude^ 
advancing, retreating, dying, dead ; horses plunging 
into action, regiments at the cannon's mouth, bayonets, 
the cut, the thrust, the cry of the last moment before 
eternity — it was a tableau never to be forgotten. Each 
actor, at least three hundred on the stage, motion- 
less, spell-bound, and for five minutes the dropping 
of a wafer would have been heard, the silence through- 
out the house was so intense. The scenic effect was 
such, you looked down over the living actors for 
miles upon camps and marching armies, and when 
the curtain fell, a wild cheer, doubling, trebling in 
intensity, rose from the theatre, each man rising to 
his feet, with face turned towards the youthful Em- 
peror, who, standing, bowed his obligations for such 
a demonstration of loyalty. No man, a witness of 
that spectacle, can doubt the centralizing power of 
the house of Hapsburg. 

Again a change came over the spirit of the scene, 
More declamation, and the stage once more is filled with 
actors ; this time the picture represents the leaders of 
the Austrian army— an officer in every uniform, as 
they appear, holding high the flag of victory. Noth- 
ing could equal the imposing appearance of these 
tableaux. And after them came a military play — camp 
life, all the actors soldiers. During the performance, seve* 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 169 

ral times, when allusion was made to the royal fami- 
ly, all rose to their feet, and deafening cheers, oft-times 
repeated, announced the unmistakable feeling of the 
Austrian leaders. I saw the Emperor rise on three 
separate occasions to make his acknowledgments, and 
as I gazed I could but think of the absolute power of 
that boyish mind. 

At each dropping of the curtain, refreshments were 
passed round on silver salvers. As before observed, 
the house contained the flour — and carefully sifted too 
—of the Austrian chiefs. No strangers were present 
save a Russian general or two, and Lord Seaton and 
Admiral Moresby, who were decorated for some brave 
deed during the long war— I believe, the saving of the 
Emperor's life. Only three Englishmen have the order. 
I saw no other foreigner. Yes, there was one. I 
must not forget to mention the courtesy of the Em- 
peror to an American officer. At the review, Com- 
modore Breeze, of the Levant squadron, was standing 
on the platform, when a staff officer approached and 
asked if he did not recognize the uniform of the Ameri- 
can navy. The gallant captain made himself known ; 
the officer at once informed him that he came by 
command of the Emperor, who knew the naval dress, 
to invite him to the anniversary celebration. The com- 
pliment was passed in the presence of the staff, them- 



170 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

selves forming almost a regiment. Webster and the 
Austrian Minister were less friendly than the Emperor 
and the American Commodore. 

I have dwelt longer upon this imposing celebration, 
because it forms a centennial link in Austrian history. 
One hundred years must pass before it can be repeat- 
ed, and Austria meanwhile may live through a thousand 
changes. Down in the dark, cold vaults, under the 
Church of the Capuchins, I counted seventy-one metal 
coffins, where are embalmed the departed members of 
the Hapsburg family — all Imperial dust, save of one, 
a governess, the humble instructress of Maria Theresa, 
whose memory lives afresh on the birth of every cen- 
tury. One subject among a colony of kings — seventy- 
one in all, from the year before Miles Standish drop- 
ped his anchor off the Plymouth shore, when the Em- 
peror Matthias was deposited here, down to the small 
plain coffin placed in the tomb the- other day — for you 
are aware that death has but just entered the Imperial 
palace, and borne away the infant princess ; the flowers 
are still fresh upon the tomb, and the sadness of the 
Empress throws a gloom over and about the palace. 
Two steps away from this little child, in the shadow 
of the sarcophagus of the late Emperor, I saw the 
mortal remains of her who so poorly supplied the place 
of Josephine — Maria Louisa, Empress of the French, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 171 

and by her side, near to the Emperor Francis, who 
loved him so well, is Napoleon II., the Duke of Reich- 
stadt* What would not the present Emperor of France 
give to place the son of Napoleon beside the ashes of 
his father, in the tomb of the Invalides ! But who 
cares for the mother ? — that mother who disgraced the 
name of Empress, who forsook her husband in adver- 
sity, to marry again, and that husband Napoleon Bo- 
naparte ! It may add another page to the eventful 
history of this wonderful family, when France wars 
with Austria to regain the body of his child. 

Don't be surprised to find me recording a brighter 
opinion of the Austrians than you have been in the 
habit of observing. The truth is, when I passed 
through the Empire thirteen months since, I was 
stamped, checked, signed, vised, up one side and down 
the other, from the moment I touched the border of 
the Adriatic until I had left the frontier — a continuous, 
never-ceasing, vexatious espionage — sufficient to justify 
the traveler in forming erroneous opinions of the coun- 
try, government, and people ! Now all is changed. 
Austria has just abolished the inland passport system ! 
Yes, don't be astonished ; there is no mistake about 
it ; the fiat has gone forth, and thus far I have 
scarcely seen a policeman in the land ! I heard of it, 
and gave no credit — I read, and believed not — I observe, 



172 YOtTNB AMERICA IN WALL- STREET. 

and am convinced. Austria has, indeed, set a praise- 
worthy example to passport Europe ! The change, so 
sudden, so complete, gives a different aspect to the 
country, a different odor to the atmosphere. Before, I 
observed only despotism and ignorance — but now, com- 
ing as I have from beggared Italy, where police and 
custom-house mark every man a thief and smuggler, 
where priestcraft stalks forth at all hours and in every 
place, and mendicants, mutilated, sickening, loathsome 
beggars, fairly taint the air with their filth and wretch- 
edness — coming, therefore, out of the Italian States into 
the Austrian dominions, this simple change in the pass- 
port system gives brighter colors to all one sees. 

Before, to my bandaged sight, vice seemed predominant 
« — now the country appears in a fairer light. Instead 
of misery and squalid poverty, I find happiness and 
contentment. The farms seem better cultivated, the 
streets better paved, better swept, and the people ap- 
pear better clothed, better housed, better fed, than any- 
where in Europe ! With the removal of their spies, 
the scales drop off, and that Austria, notorious for beat- 
ing women in public squares ; that nation, despised by 
the Saxon, contemptible for having wrung the heart's 
blood out of Hungary — this same Austria now com- 
mands my praise ! Traveling like a prisoner, I did 
not observe the magnificence of her hospitals — where 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 173 

the lame, the halt, and the blind are furnished with 
the comforts of home hy Government — the best on the 
Continent. The Lying-in Hospital may encourage im- 
morality, yet its arrangements are most perfect, for the 
rich as well as the poor. Here the new-born babe may 
commence its guileless life, live and die, and know not 
whether its mother was a princess or a beggar ! 

The system of National education has been long 
recommended. Generations before England awoke to 
its importance, Austria established schools and colle- 
ges, and in her peculiar way taught religion and gen- 
eral knowledge to her people. Miss Dix will tell you 
of their prisons, and your own eyes may satisfy you 
of the unlimited extent of their arsenal, the richness 
of their paintings, and the classic beauty of the mas- 
ter-works of Canova which adorn the capital. The 
hotels are well kept, but the charges are high. The 
private galleries and private palaces are the pride of 
the nobles. The collection of coins is the best in Eu- 
rope, and scientific men seek and obtain encourage- 
ment in Austria. All these things I notice now, but 
saw them not before. But having said this much 
on the one side, I will add a line on the other. 

The total abolition of the passport system conveys 
one painful thought ; need I tell you that it is — the 
death of Republicanism ! So strong is the Emperor ^ 



174 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

he can afford to be liberal. You want no better 
proof that " liberty, fraternity, equality" — the Magyar's 
not the Frenchman's doctrine — are gone for the pres- 
ent. Absolutism is the word of command. 'Twas a 
bold and daring thing, the Emperor's visit to Milan 
and Venice, but it was politic. He went, he saw, 
and returns a conquerer ! Bolder still in going into 
Hungary ! There, too, his mission appears successful. 
His daughter's death, and the celebration of the Or- 
der of Maria Theresa, have brought him to Vienna, 
but he will go back to his independent subjects in 
Hungary. Kossuth may still weep over his father- 
land ! But Kossuth's day is close at hand. 

Politically, a temporary quiet is observable. New 
agencies are working — new engines turning the wheels 
of their social system. I will mention two, the Credit 
Mobilier and the Concordat! The Government, through 
these two agencies, works upon the minds of the 
people. The former has demoralized and unhinged the 
healthy working of trade. Sprung into life in an evil 
hour, like its huge pattern in the French capital, 
the Credit Mobilier of Austria has inflated land and 
all kinds of property. The population is as specula- 
tion mad as in France; "Money! make it honestly 
if you can, but at any rate make it," is the creed 
of the Austrian Bourse ! A few bankers and noble- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 175 

men, ivlw sneered at trade heretofore, as the Hindoo 
sickens at pork, will become enriched, but thousands 
will be wrecked ivhen the hot air of inflated credit 
begins to escape ! When the bubble breaks, down 
tumbles the miserable fabric built upon the sand. The 
Government displays little financial ability, yet no 
nation possesses such talent for diplomacy. 

Sixty million dollars deficit last year, and this will 
show a wider gap, for the revenue is falling off, and 
Government expenses increasing. Each new loan only 
goes to cover present difficulty. The future is a blank, 
the past is forgotten. " Sufficient for the day is the 
evil thereof;" who careth for the morrow? The Bank 
Directors still sleep upon their forty-five to fifty mil- 
lions of silver, and still continue to issue their mis- 
erable trashy paper, which requires care to prevent it 
from falling to pieces in your hand. Out of the king- 
dom lead is a better medium — it possesses more value. 
The National treasury is exhausted to pay the army, 
and, like the Government of France, all the pet pro- 
jects of the Emperor must be paid by the Credit Mo- 
bilier. 

The Government becomes like that of Japan, a 
gigantic commercial firm, were the chief partner is the 
Emperor himself; Vienna is his warehouse, and he be- 
comes enriched by the money of strangers. From nurs- 



176 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

ing an illegitimate child to covering the empire with 
railways, from building the arsenal (like the Louvre at 
Paris, a disguised fortress for some expected turn of 
fortune,) to speculating in a newspaper — the cabinet 
takes the lead, and the emperor has the credit of 
guarding and protecting his subjects. The policy of 
the day is to govern the people in disguise. Stocks, 
shares, money, credit, work one way — religion, educa- 
tion, charity, another. Exorbitant prices, extravagant 
living, unbridled dissipation, result from gambling in 
credit ; this occupies the mind of the wealthy, while the 
Jesuits, who swarm throughout the land, furnish mind 
and thought for the poor. The Jesuitical doctrines are 
gaining rapidly in Europe, and Austria makes spies 
of the priests. "Whisper your private thoughts in the 
ear of the Jesuit, and the ready tool reports the se- 
cret to the G-overnment, and fattens on credulity ! 
This is the working of the Concordat. 

By these means the Emperor rules the country with- 
out the people understanding the machinery. He re- 
members well when the Turks broke the chains across 
the Danube — when Napoleon battered down the walls 
— but more vividly than anything in the past, he re- 
members with fear and trembling, 1848, when the 
streets of Vienna run red with civil war! His Hun- 
garian subjects pretend loyalty, but they despise the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 177 

Kaiser. The George Law muskets and the Kossuth 
saddles, may some time be useful. But to-day the 
emperor is all-powerful ; his army is overwhelming. 
His strength lies in that and in the priesthood. Opin- 
ion, independence, thought, are strange-sounding words 
in these despotic lands — centralization, supremacy — no 
other words will answer. To his subjects he says, 
"Obey or die!" They listen, observe the order, live, 
and appear as happy as a bridal party ! /The Emperor 
faces the lion, and has walked among the revolution- 
ists of 1848, and now he has returned to lay the 
cypress on the tomb of his child, to worship the memo- 
ry of his ancestors, and celebrate that day which will 
return again long after his mortal remains are laid in 
the tomb of the Hapsburgs. TJie second anniversary 
comes round not till 1957. 

Out of the 471,442 people in Vienna, 442,207, 
the census tells me, are Catholics. This will 
give you an idea of the material for Jesuitical educa- 
tion. 

In running through the empire, I have talked with 
the most enlightened men upon my track, and the 
foregoing are the conclusions which I have formed. 
Our minister here, Mr. Jackson, of G-eorgia, who 
is homeward bound, has given me much reliable 
information on the empire, and I think will bear 
8* 



178 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

me out in many of the opinions which I have ad- 
vanced. 

Americans in America see Europe through England. 
"We live, move and have our being, on continental affairs, 
through the " glasses of the London journals !" Baron 
Haynau is kicked out of Barclay & Perkins's brewery ; 
the English papers record it, we copy with comments, 
and send them back the yell. England formerly abused 
Austria — we echo her opinions. Hungary sent a cry 
for liberty through the British Isles — 'twas natural for 
us to be sympathetic. Ingraham demands Kotza — we 
were pleased at our national victory. On European 
affairs, generally, England takes snuff, and we sneeze! 
Just now a new element is working. The dulcet tones 
of Lord Palmerston have been heard in the Sardinian 
court — " Watch Austria — a dangerous enemy!" whispers 
the Premier — another dispatch is put in the hands of 
the Emperor Joseph — " Keep an eye on Sardinia, Count 
Cavour is ambitious for his king." And thus the "tory 
chief of a radical cabinet," "the old, old bird," puts one 
monarch against the other, keeping Europe always in 
a ferment. During the Russian war Austria played a 
capital game : her cards were all trumps. Nicholas, for- 
tunately for Austria, sleeps with his fathers, else he 
would have a small account to settle — without doubt he 
was the greatest mind of the first half of the 19th cen- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 179 

tury, the emperor of emperors, and history will write 
him down a chief! 

This letter and that from Venice will not hurthen 
you with figures, for Italy and Austria furnish poor 
material for commercial correspondence. 



ARTICLE IX. 

John Bull looking careworn — American sympathy — Young Bengal — 
East India Company — Indian Mutinies — Battle of Plassey — Olive — 
Canning — Red Tape — Plot to Massacre Europeans — King of Oude — 
History of the Insurrection — England still blind to her danger — 
M' Kay's Clippers — Delhi not taken — Indian Generals Dead — Nena Sa- 
hib— Cawnpore — "Woman's Bravery — Massacre of Troops — Madras 
and Bombay — Kings of India — Lucknow — Agra — Wives, Mothers, 
and Children Butchered — English Press Misrepresent the Danger — 
Chinese Army — Native Soldiers — The Crimean Army and Indian 
Army compared — The Climate — Distances — No Railways — France 
lands Troops at Pondicherry — The Mutiny National as well as Mili- 
tary — England still Blind — Silver Drain — Persian War — Religion — 
Tippoo Sahib's Theory — Europeans in Danger — Financial Position 
of India — Public Debt — Revenue — Expenditure — National Debt of 
England — Commerce Paralyzed — Anxiety for Telegraphic News — 
The American Eagle, united with the British Lion, to administer 
Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger. 

London, Sept. 28, 1857. 
My Dear Sir :- — "While at St. Petersburg last month, 
I received a copy of the London Times, containing 
an able article from your journal, sympathizing with 



182 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

England on the Indian insurrection. The Times gave 
a leader partially accepting the proffered aid, and the 
editorial in question, you are aware, went the rounds 
of the European press. Since the opening of the In- 
dian question, I have expressed similar opinions. I 
feel that you are right — England thinks so — while 
Continental Europe says that you are wrong. "Why ? 
Because every despotic monarch despises the free mind 
of the race from which we sprang. 

To-day, India absorbs all other topics. You have in- 
troduced me too often to your readers not to find 
space for an outsider's opinion on England and her 
Eastern possessions. To commence — let me observe 
that John Bull looks sad to-day ; that good-natured 
face appears more careworn — mark the crow's feet 
about the eyes. There are more wrinkles on his 
brow ; more gray hairs, less elasticity of spirits. Really 
our grand old Saxon father begins to look for a cheer- 
ing word from his eldest boy. He shall have a thou- 
sand; but the truth is he is too proud to accept our 
sympathy. A few months later that feeling will wear 
away, and Brother Jonathan will be treated with that 
dignity which the child of a proud old English sire 
has a right to demand. 

I am glad to see America extending her hand to 
England in this terrible affair in Hindostan. The Se- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 183 

poy mutiny ! Mutiny did I say ? Call it insurrec- 
tion, revolution, anarchy ! the fiercest, the wildest, the 
most terrific in the annals of the world. 

Young Bengal is aroused — young India is red with 
the blood of Englishmen. 

It is just two hundred and fifty-eight years since 
the Anglo-Indian tree was planted. 

Macaulay says the hells that rang out the knell of 
1599 rang in the Charter to George, Earl of Car- 
lisle, with his two hundred and fifteen merchants, 
knights, and aldermen. Sir Thomas Smith was the 
Governor, and the cash capital was but one hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars. 

That bigoted old fanatic, the first James, the patron 
of our Protestant Bible, in 1604, 1610, 1613, and 
1618, extended the charter ; but that stern old re- 
former, who told his men to put their trust in God 
and keep their powder dry, did for the Company what 
he afterwards did for Charles the First. Oliver Crom- 
well upset the entire monopoly, as General Jackson 
did old Biddle's Bank. Two years later, they got un- 
der way again, with a cash capital of three million 
six hundred thousand dollars. That gay bird, Charles 
the Second, clinched all former charters ; then came 
the princely dividends. Just a century before our 
Declaration of Independence, (1776,) the company got 



184 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

more privileges, and in 1683 their political power 
commenced. Ours sprang into life just one hundred 
years later. Delhi was the seat of the Mogul's power. 
" Delhi must be undermined ! " said they, a hundred 
years ago. "Delhi must fall !" is the feeling of England 
to-day. But without American aid India may stand 
another generation. 

Immense dividends brought powerful rivals. In 1693 
and 1695 a new company was formed, called " the 
English Company trading to the East Indies." In 
1702 both companies joined hands, under the firm of 
"the United Company of Merchants trading to the 
East Indies." More power was granted in 1726. At 
this time Madras, Bengal and Bombay obtained an 
existence as corporations. 

From eight per cent, in 1698, to three per cent, 
in 1743, they became lenders to Government. 

The charter was extended in 1880. 

Pitt's India bill of 1784 established the Board of 
Control, which still rules the company. Vernon Smith, 
like "Walker in Kansas, wishes he was out of it. 

The Act of 1794 extended the charter till the close 
of the war of 1814, just before Alexander and "Wel- 
lington rode into Paris together. 

In 1834, the East India Company's monopoly was 
broken for ever, but the owners of stock were secured 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 185 

a dividend of ten and a half per cent., the Government 
reserving power to reduce the capital stock of the Com- 
pany, after the 30th of April, 1874, fifty per cent., or 
one hundred pounds for every two hundred. From 
present appearances, this proviso will be of little service. 
The Honorable East India Company will have ceased 
to be Honorable long before that day. 

On the 20th of August, the Government was contin- 
ued in trust for the Crown, and the next year the Board 
of Control made other arrangements. This then gives 
you an abridged history of that great Power that is 
being shaken to the centre. Young Bengal is in 
earnest. 

During the last half century the Indian records give 
the details of eight mutinies in the Indian army. But 
what were they compared to this ? 

When a son of Tippoo Sahib was to be placed on 
the throne of Mysore, India was startled by the mutiny 
of Yellore. That was in 1806. Two hundred soldiers 
were killed and wounded. Such mortality is now 
taking place perhaps every hour. 

The Madras army were up in arms in 1809, and in 
1811 Colonel Munroe blew some sixty men into the 
air. This was the time when the Rajah of Tra van- 
core and the Madras native officers conspired. There 
was another mutiny about the time that Napeleon was 
on his way to St. Helena, (a little incident by the by, 



186 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



not forgotten by the Emperor of the French.) "When 
the ''Bengal Java Light Battalion" were kept too long 
away from home in 1815, they occasioned the Honora- 
ble Company some anxiety by their insubordination. 

During the Burmese war in 1824 (the year before 
the panic,) the Barrackpore regiments refused to go to 
Burmah, because no cattle were sent to transport their 
baggage. Again, in 1843, the Madras Sixth Cavalry 
wanted more pay before they would march on Scindh. 

Six years since, the Bengal troops at Barrackpore, 
mutinied against going to Burmah during the late war. 

The Sepoy several times has refused to go across 
the Indus ; or, as he expresses it, upon the " Kala 
Pawnee," and has objected to work in trenches. But 
all these petty mutinies amount to nothing compared 
to the horrible atrocities of to-day. 

Having gone over the page of Indian history, giving 
a passing word to the several insubordinations among 
the Sepoys, let me take up scene by scene, act by 
act, the terrible drama being enacted while I write, 
where nations are the audience. 

The same year that Austria celebrated the centennial 
anniversary of the Order of Maria Theresa, England 
rejoiced over the centennial anniversary of the battle 
of Plassey. 

Lord Clive in 1757 — Lord Canning in 1857 : the 
former won the laurels of a soldier and a statesman — 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 187 

the latter has gained thus far neither the one nor the 
other. England lost America, but at the same time 
she planted the seed of her Indian Empire — that Em- 
pire which totters to-day and must fall on the mor- 
row, unless England accepts the proffered sympathy of 
America. 

England to-day is blind to the dangers that sur- 
round her Oriental dominion. To-morrow she may 
wake from her lethargic slumbers. 

The times are changing, but she declines to change 
her system. Red tape brought disgrace upon her Cri- 
mean army — red tape will stultify her action in the 
East. The fact is, she refuses to open her eyes to the 
danger, and this policy she has adopted from the first- 
You can trace it to a day. Mark this observation, and 
tell me if she does not sleep when the world requires 
that she should be awake. 

On the centennial anniversary of the battle of Plassey, 
the Times and other journals ushered in the new-born 
year with the sounding of drums and the clashing of 
timbrels. The Times wrote a splendid leader (they 
always do). Mark, said the writer, our universal 
Empire. Look at India, from the Punjaub to the Car- 
natic — from Bombay to Burmah — from Madras to Meerut 
— from Ajmeer to Calcutta : — throughout our entire 
dominion contentment reigns supreme — an almost uni- 



188 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

versal peace. At the same time there was a cloud 
rising in the East not bigger than your hand, spread- 
ing larger and larger — a summer cloud concealing the 
thunderbolt that destroys a nation. 

While this " leader" was in the hands of the printer, a 
plot was matured to massacre every man, woman, and 
child in Hindostan. Every European was to die. The 
King of Oude had some twenty thousand men outside 
of Calcutta as laborers, mechanics, and servants. Those 
twenty thousand men were trained soldiers, brought 
there in disguise to murder every European in Cal- 
cutta. The plan was to turn the frowning guns of 
Fort William on the shipping and sink it in the Hoogly, 
so that no white man could escape, and then as the 
cake was passed from hand to hand, the slaughter was 
to commence. 

In due course of mail the intelligence arrived of the 
Nineteenth regiment having mutinied at Barrackpore. 
They refused to use the Enfield rifle cartridge. Of course 
they were disbanded. The thirty-fourth followed suit. 
The news in England created no uneasiness, save with 
Lord Ellenborough, who saw therein the handwriting 
on the wall. His eloquent warnings are recorded on 
the register of the House of Lords. 

England saw the mutiny and waited for later news. 
It came. Eight thousand men had revolted. England 



Y0UN8 AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 189 

turned red — then pale — then laughed, (hut like Riche- 
lieu, she shuddered as she laughed,) and finally hreathed 
a note of sorrow. They waited for another mail. It 
arrived. The telegraph told them thirty thousand men 
had " disappeared." England shook off her drowsi- 
ness, and said " Let there be no discontent ;" and up 
went the funds. Another despatch- — " The Bengal army 
has ceased to exist. Greneral Anson was dead." Still 
another rise in the funds. England said, "Well, We 
begin to see daylight." All an Englishman wishes to 
know is the worst. " Show us the dark side and we 
will soon make it bright. Another mail will have put 
the mutiny down." Yet thirty thousand men were 
shipped away in July and August — some in steamers 
■ — some in sailing ships — M'Kay's clippers— the " Light- 
ning," " Champion of the Seas," and " James Banes," 
were the only Americans that got a charter. They 
took out some 2,600 men, at one hundred and twenty- 
five dollars each — a good business for the owners. 
American clippers are already on the way. American 
officers, stung by the atrocities at Cawnpore, are im- 
patient to revenge them. American soldiers are ready 
to follow. When a Saxon woman is outraged England 
and America are one. 

The most intense excitement was created throughout 
the kingdom. The Journals said, "We will soon put 



190 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

it down. Madras and Bombay stand firm. Delhi must 
fall." 

Still later intelligence. • 

Delhi not taken. Greneral Barnard dead. Reid sue- 
ceeds. Cawnpore in danger. The telegraph told but 
half the story, but the excitement was terrible to the 
looker-on. The community lived on hope. 

Another arrival — Fourteen days later. 

Delhi still in the hands of the rebels, who are flock- 
ing in from all about the country. Greneral Reid dead, 
and one thousand Englishmen, women and children, 
slaughtered — mutilated — butchered at Cawnpore. The 
brave Greneral Wheeler fought like an Englishman — 
fought hard and well — but the enemy were too power- 
ful. The garrison was to be saved, the papers signed ; 
and when the Europeans passed out, there came a 
volume of smoke, and the " red artillery" flashed across 
the river. Brave men, beautiful women, and a regi- 
ment of children were shot down. English mothers 
and English daughters were reserved for a more terri- 
ble fate— outraged before their husbands, their fathers, 
and their brothers. Nena Sahib the fiend — the assassin 
■ — the Marat — the Robespierre of the bloody deed. Curse 
his memory. All this ; and yet history makes the Black 
Hole of Calcutta more terrible ! 

The funds now commence to droop. Indian families 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 191 

are dressed in mourning. Indian merchants are trem- 
bling for their credit. The India House have ordered 
ten thousand more men, for August and September. 
Forty thousand soldiers before the 1st of Septem- 
ber. More news. Delhi still holds out. The rebels 
making sorties like the Russians at Sebastopol. Luck- 
now in danger. General Lawrence dead — as brave a 
man as ever wore a sword, as sound a statesman as 
ever administered the affairs of a country. The Bom- 
bay army is up ; the Punjaub is rising. Cholera is in the 
camps. Bad as was the despatch — worse still were 
the details. The funds still droop. The Indian mas- 
sacres are in everybody's mouth — even an English news- 
paper gets out an extra on the occasion. The journals 
are full of letters — letters that at one moment chill the 
heart with horror, and at the next fire it with indig- 
nation — letters recording brave exploits. Think of young 
Willoughby : he placed the torch in the magazine, and 
a thousand Indians were hurled into their Hindoo world. 
A woman, the wife of an officer, shoots six Sepoys — all 
the while loading the guns for her husband ; and then, 
rather than see his wife outraged, her husband shoots 
her, and with a prayer upon his lips, blows out his 
own brains. 

Letters — full of misery, full of dread despair — to 
mothers, to families at home ; letters that make the 
blood run cold — their details so sadden the heart. 



192 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Once more the mail is in — news this time to the 
end of August. 

The army before Delhi besieged instead of besieging. 
General Havelock fought great odds, and has beaten in 
every battle. Havelock, the bravest man in India. 
" Cry Havelock ! and let slip the dogs of war !" says 
Punch. Lucknow growing weaker. 

The army before Delhi in great danger. Agra hopes 
to hold out. Two hundred troops ambushed and killed 
at Arrah. Five hundred fell at Delhi. Lord Canning 
disarms his body guard. The Madras army is up. The 
Sepoys refuse to go to Calcutta. 

Lord Elgin has arrived from China. The China 
troops are all at Calcutta — four thousand men. So 
China is put to bed for a while. 

Lord Elgin and Sir Colin Campbell not on good 
terms with Lord Canning. No harmony in the coun- 
cils. General Grant nobody. 

The Gwalior Contingent of thirty-two thousand men 
with the rebels. Distrust, discontent, and gloom through- 
out the Indian Empire. 

King of Delhi on the throne of the Moguls. King of 
Oude a state prisoner in Fort William. Queen of 
Oude had an audience with the Queen of England after 
the mutiny broke out. Sir Colin Campbell on the sick 
list. Canning growing more and more unpopular. The 
wisdom of the father was not inherited by the son. 



YOUNO AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 



193 



Anxiety in England increasing. 

The Sepoy army everywhere warring with those who 
gave them salt, 

No Lord Clive. No Warren Hastings. No Welling- 
ton. No general but Havelock, and he surrounded by 
three Sepoy armies, and yet he has but a thousand 
men. I dread to hear the tidings of another mail. 

Nena Sahib, who has been killed several times by 
telegraph and the London journals, is marching on 
Lucknow at the head of an army of 30,000 men. 

This is the latest news. I have given it to you 
in despatches, as correctly as my memory served. Is 
it not terrible ? 

Mail after mail will record massacre after massacre. 
Lucknow, Agra, Havelock's gallant band, and the army 
at Delhi, are in great danger — the danger increasing 
every hour. Would to Crod that every man, woman, 
and child — every free-born Saxon — were safe on board 
the ships in the river, for I tremble for their fate. 

This is the position of India to-day — anarchy and 
murder from north to south, east to west! The Sepoy 
soldier is wiping out the stains of a hundred years of 
oppression ; his religion moves him to murder j fanati- 
cism makes him torture his victims. No Spanish In- 
quisition — no North American savage — no Ladrone pirate 
ever committed deeds so dark. History gives no record 



194 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET 

of such wholesale atrocity ! Children tossed from bayo- 
net to bayonet, women mutilated — passed from harem 
to harem — paraded naked through the streets — and then 
handed by the Sepoys over to the rabble. 

Young girls — young wives — young mothers — great G od ! 
my heart sickens ! I will write no more. I shout 
with Tupper, " Shoot them down ! those who shame their 
Creator by their infamy !" The author of " Proverbial 
Philosophy" demands "vengeance of Hell upon the In- 
dian race." 

America to the rescue ! England must have our 
help, or her power is waning rapidly. 

The Mohammedan festival of Eed passed, the 2d of 
August, without bloodshed. The Mohurren, thank God, 
had also gone by. But other religious days are rapidly 
running on. 

General Grant has gone to Madras. General Lloyd, 
at Dinapoor, like General Hewitt at Meerut, is to be 
court-martialed. Both were imbeciles. The latter has 
been fifty-three years in India. If you understand the 
enervating influence of the Indian climate, you can im- 
agine what amount of energy this old man could have 
had. 

How, then, are matters to-day ? I have examined 
the subject, and understand what I am writing. I dif- 
fer from the English press ; their nationality blinds their 
judgment. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 195 

Forty thousand men were said to be in India — Euro* 
pean soldiers-— when the mutiny broke out, and yet 
they could not save Cawnpore or take Delhi. In my 
opinion, thirty thousand is nearer the truth — however, 
in round numbers make it forty. 

Then the Chinese army of five thousand — and say, 
from Ceylon, Mauritius, Australia, and the Cape, five 
thousand more— will make an army of fifty thousand 
men. Add the troops sent round the Cape from Eng- 
land, forty thousand more. Here, then, you have an 
army of ninety thousand men. 

The English army got away from England in July, 
August, and September ; they would arrive in India 
in November and December— all before January. But 
be it remembered that the European population of In« 
dia is at the mercy of an enraged Sepoy army of three 
hundred thousand men (save a few straggling regi* 
ments), in a country containing one hundred and sixty 
millions of Indians who hate the Saxon's rule — from 
the latest dates to the end of November — -from two to 
three months before the army can reach the East. Be 
not, then, surprised at anything you hear. England 
knows not the danger ; if she does, she dares not tell 
it to her people. America alone can save to the Saxon 
race the Indian Empire. 

Now for a little analogy. When standing on the 



196 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

heights of Inkerman and Balaklava, I looked down 
upon five gigantic armies. The allies could be seen 
on every side. There was that splendidly equipped 
Sardinian army ; there were the Turks, the Piedmon* 
tese, and fifty thousand Englishmen just arrived, fresh 
for war ; and then I saw Napoleon's soldiers. Five 
armies, composing — the journals say — some three hun- 
dred thousand men. And yet the Crimean vineyards 
and the Crimean hills seemed almost uninhabited — the 
camps so far apart, the armies covering so little ground. 
Now, I ask you, if over a quarter million of men make 
so little show on the Crimean battle-ground, what will 
ninety thousand soldiers make in Hindostan, when the 
one, compared to the other, is in about the proportion 
of my finger nail to my whole hand ? 

It must also be remembered that there are four hurt* 
dred thousand drilled soldiers in the pay of independent 
native princes and rajahs, who have thus far remained 
neutral. Scindh and Holkar, hitherto, have been true 
but they cannot be trusted. 

The climate destroys the European soldier right and 
left. "When I was in Calcutta in March, I was carried 
in a palanquin — no man walks where labor is so cheap 
and the sun so scorching. George Ashburner placed 
a dozen servants to do my bidding ; and my suite of 
apartments were like a hotel, there were so many. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 197 

The great difficulty is the distances. Take Wild's 
map of India. I bought one at once, and have studied 
it carefully. The moment the telegraph announced the 
mutiny of a military station, I drew an ink mark 
about it ; and, with the Indian Empire represented on 
my table, I have made myself acquainted with the 
subjects on which I write. The distances are great, 
and no railways of importance completed, save 120 
miles out of Calcutta, 50 miles out of Madras, and 
but fifty miles out of Bombay. No railways, and 
military roads none the best. Bullock drays get on 
but two miles an hour, night and day work. It takes 
some three weeks from Calcutta to Delhi ; by the 
river steamers on the Granges and the Jumna, it will 
take you four weeks ; therefore, after the troops ar- 
rived at Calcutta, a month is gone before Delhi can 
be reached. Hence, for a long time, our Indian cousins 
are left at the mercy of the most savage barbarians 
the world has ever witnessed. 

"When the army arrives, mark the distances : 976 
miles from Calcutta to Delhi ; 774 miles from Bombay 
to Madras; 1,182 miles from Madras to Cawnpore; 839 
miles from Agra to Calcutta; 1,301 miles from Calcutta 
to Bombay : 1,103 miles from Delhi to Seringapatam 
(memorable for being the place where Wellington, for 
the first time 3 turned his back on an enemy) ; 1,167 



198 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

miles from Allahabad to Pondicherry (where France 
has just landed a regiment of soldiers — only a lit- 
tle, very little spot upon the horizon) ; Bhooj to Dina- 
pore, 1,748 miles; 1,475 miles from Darnhar to 
Patna. 

These figures will give you a better idea of what 
an English army has to encounter, than a volume of 
argument. England refuses to look the danger in the 
face. She says it is purely a military mutiny. It is 
not so alone. Has she so soon forgotten that after 
the massacre at Meerut and Cawnpore, the women 
were turned over to the rabble in the bazaar, who 
stripped them, walked them naked (Lady Grodiva rode) 
through the city, and then outraged, mutilated, and 
tortured them to death ? The picture is too horrible for 
contemplation. The people are Asiatics ; their religion is 
fanaticism ; their wrongs are household words. Shoot 
them down — there is no other way — but it must be 
with the assistance of the Americans. The Saxon's 
government is better than their own. 

England says they are short of percussion caps. 
Has she forgotten that a Hindoo received the prize for 
the manufacture of percussion caps at the great Ex- 
hibition in London ? 

England says that they are short of powder. Has 
she forgotten that Delhi has been made a Cronstadt, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 199 

a Sebastopol, by the East India Company during the 
last half century, and that Hindostan furnishes more 
saltpetre than all the world beside ? And yet, when 
the mutiny broke out, not a European soldier was in- 
side the walls! 

England says that there are no leaders. "Where's 
the King of Oude, the King of Delhi, and that fiend 
incarnate, Nena Sahib ? 

England says they are short of funds. Where are 
the hundreds of millions of silver that have been 
shipped there, disturbing the currency of the world? 

Was it not a ruling mind that waited for the breaking 
out of the Persian war before they struck their 
colors ? 

Was it not a ruling mind that took advantage of 
England's attention in China before they raised the 
red flag of mutiny ? 

Was it not a ruling mind that selected the cen- 
tennial anniversary of the battle of Plassey for the 
general insurrection ? 

Was it not a ruling mind that chose Delhi, the 
centre of the Mogul Empire, as a rendezvous ? 

"Was it not a ruling mind that made the question 
a question of religion ? — and, most important, was it 
not a ruling mind that postponed the evil day until 
the world had been drained of silver — silver which is 



200 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

hoarded throughout the Indian Empire, disarranging 
the exchanges of the West ? Are all of these things 
the result of accident ? 

Tippoo Sahib of the Carnatic — Tippoo Sahib of Seringa- 
patam — the Indian King who corresponded with Napo- 
leon when in Egypt, regarding the invasion of India — 
Tippoo Sahib's doctrine was this, to use the sense of 
his own words : — " We do not understand these Eng- 
lish soldiers. Their scientific warfare ; their military 
tactics ; their discipline ; their arms and equipments ; 
their courage — all are tco powerful for the Indian race. 
We must learn their art of warfare ; we will work 
for them ; they will arm us and teach us, and when 
we are sufficiently strong, our time will come." Well has 
the system worked. Regiment after regiment, till the 
Sepoy army numbers some three hundred thousand 
men — men who have shot down their European officers 
like cattle — officers who, for a generation, have grown 
around and amongst them. 

It is absurd to say that they are not good soldiers. 
There is one of two things — either the Sepoy has not 
the material to make him a soldier, or the British 
officers who taught them were not good teachers. 
Before the mutiny the first point would have been 
answered by pointing to the medals that the Sepoy 
wears for battles won and brave deeds accomplished, 
I saw medals on most of the Bengal soldiers, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 201 

The tragedy of Cawnpore requires to be portrayed 
by the historian, the poet, and the orator, before Eng- 
land and the world can feel its startling horrors. The 
Biack Hole of Calcutta — an accidental tragedy — chills 
us when we look it in the face ; but what was that 
to this ? Another mail may bring us similar deeds from 
Agra, from Lucknow, and even from Calcutta. "What 
can seven thousand Europeans do with a hostile city — 
with a population of four hundred thousand people ? 

I pity every white man, woman, and child in 
India. 

There is another disagreeable feature — the financial 
question. 

The East India Company is burdened with debt. 
Shall I make a few figures ? For the year ending 
1855 and 1856, the gross revenue of the Indian 
Empire was one hundred and forty-four millions of 
dollars. 

Opium contributed $24,000,000 

Land taxes 89,000,000 

The salt monopoly 12,000,000 

While stamps, Post-Office, &c, gave 19,000,000 

It cost to collect this sum nearly one-third — say 
$33,000,000— leaving a net revenue of $111,000,000. 
Against which there is an expenditure of $115,000,000, 
9* 



202 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

showing a deficit last year of nearly $5,000,000 to 
be added to the deht of India. 

Already it runs up to, including interest, sinking fund, 

home funded, &c $310,000,000 

(Our corn crop is more than that.) 

Add to that debt, expenses of 40,000 men, passage to 
India and back, expenses up the country, equip- 
ments, pay, &c. — say $5,000 per man — for three 
years' work 200,000,000 



Total* $510,000,000 

— which must he added to the national deht of Eng- 
land before 1860, already in round numbers amount- 
ing to $4,000,000,000, or five dollars to each man, woman, 
and child that compose the eight hundred millions of 
human beings in the world. 

The interest on that debt per annum will pay the 
entire expenses of the United States Government for 
three years. 

Throughout the Indian Empire the revenue is stop- 
ped, the machinery has broken, the system has worked 
itself out. No receipts — but payments daily ; nothing 



* Lord Ellenborough says that it will take 15,000 men ^per annum 
to keep the army up to 40,000. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 203 

coming in — everything going out ; treasuries being rob- 
bed on the one side, while Christians are being butchered 
on the other. The Indian commerce is paralyzed — the 
Indian banks are undermined. "When there are wars 
and rumors of wars the banker and the merchant 
must bid good-bye to kiting. The Calcutta merchants 
are in about the same position with their fellows in 
other portions of the globe — they have worked the 
oracle of expansive credit till it will work no more. 
The day of reckoning is close at hand. 

Commercially it is bad enough, financially it is worse 
but politically it is the very worst of all, and yet 
England is unconscious of the danger. She lives on, 
regardless of others' fate and of her own ; she believes 
that she will conquer India ; she believed also that 
she would conquer Russia. Russia still lives. Eng- 
land, to-day, financially, is in the same position as 
India was, politically, before the breaking out of the 
mutiny. She sleeps on a volcano. 

"With doubt and dread I wait for later intelligence 
but I fear the telegraphic despatch will be written in 
drops of blood. Bad news is close at hand ; if not 
by the next mail, it cannot be far away. 

I am sure the Americans will not allow their old 
mother land to lose her Indian empire. This time 
it is no infringement of treaties ; and if I understand 



204 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

the signs of the times, next winter you will have 
more volunteers than you can feed. 

When England asks our help let us give it, and 
history will paint in glowing colors the age when the Ame- 
rican eagle and the British lion, rushing to the rescue 
of the Saxon race, pounced with a hlood-red vengeance 
upon the Bengal tiger, as he was gnawing at the 
breast of a Saxon woman, and tearing in pieces a 
Saxon babe. 



SPECULATIONS, 
CALCULATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS, 

ETC., ETC. 

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil— 1837 and 1857— The Past, the 
Present, and the Future — Western Lands — Chicago represents " Land 
Mania 11 Latter-day Millionaire — Railways of Illinois illustrate Rail- 
way Mania — Ohio Life and Trust Company — Railway Reforms re- 
commended — Floating Debt — The times are changing— ^Zoco- motives at 
a discount — Illinois Central — Depreciation in all speculative property 
—The Disease requires a powerful Remedy — Hard Currency — Specie 
Imports and Exports — Coinage at United States Mint — Bank Statis- 
tics — James Buchanan's warning — History of Paper Money — Credit 
based on Faith — Hard Currency Countries — Bacon and Adam Smith 
ahead of their time, but behind ours — Protection — Free Trade — 
Economy — The Father and his Family — The West Rich — Credit — 
Obligations to Europe are paid by two years' economy — How Ame- 
rica sold Bonds in England — Repudiation condemned by America — 
Secretary of Treasury's miscalculations — Corn crops over-estimated — 
Farmers better sell — England owes America for grain — Andrews' 
Statistics of Produce — Cotton not the only interest in the country — 
Hay crop larger than Cotton crop — South no richer than the North 
— Credit and Labor as cheap in America as England — Industrial 
productions > 

" The World, the Flesh, and the Devil," was the 
pithy text of an old Calvinistio preacher, who, like the 



206 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

Rev. Dr. Beecher, had the odd habit of calling plain 
things by their Christian names. 

" I propose," said he, " to pass rapidly through the 
world, touch lightly on the flesh, and hasten on to the 
Devil." 

In publishing " Young America Abroad," I passed 
rapidly through the world ; in publishing " Young Am- 
erica at Home," I have touched lightly on the flesh ; 
and, in writing this concluding chapter, I shall endeavor 
to avoid the last alternative of the minister, by telling 
the truth, with the hope of shaming the Devil. 

Having croaked for twelve months, you may be sur- 
prised to find me croaking still. 

My introductory remarks endeavor to prove that our 
Banking and Commercial sages are some ways behind 
the times, in comparing this financial picture with that 
of former days. If the mind of the Bank Director who 
weathered the storm of former panics, had expanded 
at the same rate as his Banking operations, he would 
not now be fancying a resemblance between things 
which twenty years had rendered totally dissimilar. 

The upsetting of a stage coach at that time might 
have broken an arm or two ; but when the Express 
train runs off the bridge, it carries misery to many a 
happy home. 

The master of an onion sloop between Cape Cod and 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 107 

Boston, during the last war, might well feel astonished 
when wrecked in mid-ocean in the clipper " Great Re- 
public." 

The times have changed since that day, and are 

CHANGING STILL. 

Are the merchants of New- York aware that some 
fourteen hundred hanks have suspended payment 
throughout these United States ? 

Have they also realized the fact that some fourteen 
hundred firms and corporations have failed ? If so, 
where, I ask, is the clear sky which they have discov- 
ered in the financial and commercial horizon ? "Would 
to Grod that my vision could descry so bright a pro- 
mise ! 

But let the past go by. Yet if they close their eyes 
to the disaster of the present, how can I expect them 
to join me in speculating on the future ? With due 
regard, however, to their opinions, I intend to do so 
and from Wall-street, after taking a bird's-eye view 
of our own country, I propose to step into the Old 
World to mark the changes now in progress. 

This financial storm has no parallel in the history 
of commerce. I heard the muttering of the gale in 
Europe ; I now see in the " Suspension " of the Banks 
its middle stage ; but the great trees will stand till 
the tempest increases to the tornado. 



208 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

These are some of its workings : 

All speculative property must drop, from day to 
day, all the way from forty to sixty per cent. Land 
and railways, stocks, houses, ships, cotton, and sugar 
are feeling the terrible effect of depreciation. 

Speculative Western lands must come down from 
the sky. Fifteen hundred per cent, advance is too 
high a jump to make in the price of a house-lot in 
eighteen months ; eighteen years would hardly warrant it. 

Chicago in the New World has done what the 
Credit Mobilier has accomplished in the Old: set 
everybody crazy with their immense fortunes made in 
lands, their magnificent warehouses, and their grand 
trunk railways. 

The Prairie City is full of paper millionaires. 



I can best illustrate the madness of the age by in- 
troducing here one land operation in the "West. This 
will give a fair idea of the land mania. 

Some Western merchant is desirous of investing some 
of the money which he owes to the East, believing 
that he can turn a few thousands before the dry 
goods note comes due. If not, he can easily get his 
paper renewed. He buys a lot, raises money on mort- 
gage, and sells to another, who owes for goods bought 
in New-York The lot changes hands nine times. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 209 

These are the figures : 

First purchase $1,000 First mortgage $500 

Second " 1,500. .. .Second « 750 

Third " 2,000 . . . .Third « 1,000 

Fourth " __ 3,000 .... Fourth " 1,500 

Fifth " 4,500. .. .Fifth " 2,000 

Sixth " 7,000 Sixth " 3,250 

Seventh " > 10,000 . . . .Seventh " 4,500 

Eighth " 12,500.... Eighth " 5,000 

Ninth " 15,000.... Ninth " 6,500 

The ninth time it changes hands the owner raises 
$6,500 on the original $1,000 purchase, valued "before 
the crisis at $15,000 ! The sales all made in a year 
and a half— the land in no way improved. 

Brigham Young represents the " Latter Day Saint," 
but it took a French poet to describe the " Latter 
Day Millionaire :" # 

"Monday, I started my land operations; 
Tuesday, owed millions, by all calculations ; 
Wednesday, my "brown-stone" palace began; 
Thursday, I drove out a spanking new span; 
Friday, I gave a magnificent ball ; 
Saturday, smashed — with just nothing at all." 

— (At least nothing that the creditors could get at.) 

It reminds me of the Australian land mania of 1853. 
Here is an inflation of fifteen hundred per cent. ; and 
yet Mr. Appleton says that there is little cause for the 
panic but the sugar speculation ! 

* Mackay's " Popular Delusions." — Law's Mississippi Land Scheme, 
1719-'20. 



210 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



Take another interest — Railways. Having mentioned 
Chicago, I may as well take the State which Chicago 
represents, to illustrate the railway mania. 

The Western States are cross-barred with railroads. 
They branch out of Indianapolis and Chicago like the 
veins in one's hand. Examine the map — it's a curi- 
osity. Illinois is the State before me ; observe the lines : 

Miles. 

Chicago and St. Louis 220 

Chicago and Rock Island 229 

Chicago and Milwaukee 45 

Galena and Chicago Union 259 

Great Western Illinois 148 

Illinois Central 704 

Illinois and Wisconsin 91 

Terre Haute and Alton 215 

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 138 

Peoria and Oquawka 152 

Ohio and Mississippi 147 

Michigan Central — 10 

Michigan Southern 12 

Belleville and Illinoistown 15 

Joliet Cut-off 44 

Fox River Valley 42 

Northern Cross _ 100 

Total _ 2571 

Two thousand five hundred and seventy-one miles 
of rail in a State of only about one million and a 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 211 

half of people ! — costing, at an estimate of thirty 
thousand dollars per mile, some seventy-seven millions, 
or about forty dollars to each man, woman, and child 
in the State. This ought to convince " unbelievers " 
that the West has ridden a free horse to death. 

Henry V. Poor gives in the American Raihvay 
Journal (see Appendix) a statement of all the lines 
in operation in the United States. The number of 
miles completed on the 1st of January, 1857, ( was 
twenty-four thousand, two hundred and ninety, costing 
between nine and ten hundred millions of dollars 
(about the sum left among the Eastern tribes by 
the Allies during the Crimean war). 

To show how rapidly we have been using up Eng- 
land's money, I will give here the annual increase 
since January 1st, 1848, the year the Emperor of 
the French realized one of his " Napoleonic ideas." 



" Number of 


Increase 


miles R R. in the 


over pre- 


U. S. 


ceding year. 



1848 5.265 , — 

1849 6,195 930 

1850 7,350 1,253 

1851 8,856 1,408 

1852 10,878 2,022 

1853 13,315 2,437 

1854 15,511 2,196 

1855 19,438 3,927 

1856 21,440 2,002 

— . 2,850 



212 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Nearly three thousand miles during the past year ! 
Progressing at this rate, we would have had fifty thou- 
sand miles of railway completed in 1867. But, Presto ! 
the Ohio Life and Trust Company exploded, upsetting 
every speculative hobby in the country. That company 
proved to be the corner brick of a ten-story house, 
built with very bad mortar, by very bad workmen, on 
a very rotten foundation. 

Many of the roads are wanted to carry on the legi- 
timate business of the country, but to make them pay, 
sweeping reforms are necessary. 

Raise prices. Don't make the capital stock twice 
the cost of the road. Reduce expenditure. Don't 
expend too much on fancy engines. Cut off the run- 
ners. Never allow five different agents belonging to 
the same company to hang the same placard up in the 
same room. Don't pay one hundred thousand dollars 
a year for advertising. Live within your means. Keep 
out of debt. Bury all " dead heads." Don't pay 
Presidents $25,000 salaries. Don't borrow money to 
pay dividends that were never earned. Don't let spe- 
culators have anything to do with the management. 
Let those who own stock and live along the line of 
road manage their own property. Let stockholders at- 
tend the meetings. Don't send proxies, but go your- 
selves. "When there, speak out ; don't be gagged by 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



213 



14 cut and dried" resolutions. Ask for the accounts ; ex* 
amine well the details, especially of " construction ac- 
count." You have certainly a right to inquire about 
investing your own money. Don't be afraid of great 
men ; you have as much right to talk as they. Make 
yourself thoroughly acquainted with the subject, and, 
when loaded, fire. An American respects a man who 
dares to express his mind. 

Two hundred millions of railway paper under pro- 
test, with a floating debt of some sixteen millions 
unprovided for, is too serious a matter to widows and 
orphans for stockholders to go to sleep over. 

The times are changing. Men must work, not play. 
Churches to-day are more popular than clubs. Health, 
industry, integrity are worth more to-day than railway 
shares. Zoco-motives may conduct the national train 
in the "glorious summer" of prosperity, but they run 
off the track when the " winter of our discontent " 
blocks up the road with the snows of adversity. 

The land mania and the railway mania in Illinois 
will be land-marks in the history of the age. She 
possesses the largest railway in the world, which rail- 
way squeezed out of the government a little land, 
which land is mortgaged for a good deal of money. 
A railroad through such a country, (not quite as densely 
populated as Belgium,) not entirely paid for, and which 



214: YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET 

can never be run to pay, cannot be worth more than 
& hundred per cent, premium on its shares ! Illinois 
illustrates the rash speculations of the Western States. 

Other interests have also been pushed to their ut- 
most tension by inflated credit ; but the two interests 
mentioned will be sufficient to endorse my argument, 
that every kind of property must fall, day by day- 
down-— lower and lower— till it finds a substantial 
value. Nothing can raise it but inflation again, and 
who is so bold as to recommence that ? 

" Expand, expand ! " said the financial sages to the 
banks. They did expand— and burst ! Speculation has 
carried prices to a dizzy height. They must find a 
level. Expansion placed them in the air ; contraction 
brings them to the ground again. 

Let the merchants make up their minds to look 
the enemy in. the face, and not pursue the ignis 
fatuus idea that a let-up is close at hand to dispel 
the nightmare of a hard winter. 



The times are changing. The nature of the dis- 
ease requires a powerful remedy. What is that 
remedy? Hard currency. Rodin, in the "Wander- 
ing Jew,' 3 resorted to the tortures of a galvanic bat* 
tery before he rid himself of the cholera. 

Hard currency will mend the steam engine ; noth- 
ing else can. At any rate, we must try it for awhile] 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 215 

The Bank of England issue no notes under $25. 
The Bank of France issue none under $20, (although 
lately a smaller note has been recommended). In 
America no note should circulate under $10. This 
would soon bring the American eagles out of the old 
stockings in the farm houses. 

Cushing compliments the ladies, and uses metaphor 
when speaking on the crisis. Banks, more states- 
manlike, gives figures. "In round numbers," said he, 
at Faneuil Hall, "the records show $300,000,000 of 
specie in the country." If so, there you have hard 
currency by the wholesale. 

Andrew's valuable work gives the following table : 

Importations of Bullion into the United States 

from 1821 to 1852 8274,407,398 

Exportations of Bullion from the United States 

during the same period. 265,529,935 

Leaving in the country the amount of. $8,877,463 

j TAnd this small amount comprised the product of 
two California years. 

Our Imports of Bullion in 1837 were. $10,516,414 

While our Exports that year were but 4,540,465 

Our Imports of Bullion in 1857 amounted to 12,461,199 

Our Exports from our mines show the sum of. . . 70,000,000 

Which completely turns the tables. 



Si 6 young america in Wall^stheet, 

This table will show the 

Amount of Coinage at the Mint, and Amount left the Country 
during the past Seven Years i 

Coinage at the Amount ex- 

U. S. Mint. ported. 

1850 > ; $33,847,838. . , . . , 4 k .$ 2,894,202 

1851...,.,.. ».,.,,. 63,388,889... 24,019,160 

1852 57,845,597 37,169,091 

1853 64,291,477. . . , . . . 23,285,493 

1854 > . . 60,713,866 > 34,438,713 

1855.,..., , 44,060,302 .......... 52,587,531 

1856.......... , 64,283,963 41,557,853 

1857... (six months)... 26,794,782 69,949,133 



RECAPITULATION. 

Amount of Coinage since 1850, in round numbers, $415,000,000 
Amount of Exports, k . 4 ; . 286,000,000 

Excess of Coinage over Exports , $129,000,000 

Estimated Amount of Coin previously in the country, 171,000,000 



$300,000,000 



Giving an average of about Ten Dollars each to 
the twenty-eight millions of people in the country. 

Hunt gives the entire coinage of the United States 
since the time of the first director, David Ritten* 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



217 



house, to the close of last year, at the several mints, 
as follows : 

Commencement 
Mints. of Coinage. Amounts. 

Philadelphia 1793 $391,730,571 

San Francisco 1854 59,369,473 

New-Orleans 1838 59,423,415 

Charlotte .-..- 1838 4,384,694 

Dahlonega 1838 5,792,841 

Assay Office, New- York 1854 42,732,712 

Total amount of specie that bears our national 
stamp $563,433,706 



TABLE 



Showing Number of Banks — Their Capital Stocks — Amount of 
Notes in Circulation — Specie in their Vaults, and Indebted- 
ness of the People to the Banks, during the respective Years 
of the Three Great Financial Revulsions of 1837, 1847, and 
1857, ♦ 



1837 
1847 

1857 



Number 

of 
Banks. 



788 

716 

1,415 



Capital Stock. 



$290,772,091 
208,070,622 
370,834,274 



Bank Notes in 
Circulation. 



Specie in Vaults 



$149,185,800 
105,519,766 
214,778,822 



$37,915,540 
35,182.616 
58,349,838 



Indebtedness 
of People 
to Banks. 



$525,115,702 
810,282,945 
684,456,837 



Mark one feature : — While the Banks have nearly- 
doubled their capital, the specie in their vaults shows 
no proportionate increase. 

10 



218 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

California and Australia saved the Banks from break- 
ing before ; but there was no new gold field to post- 
pone the evil day this time. 

These tables will furnish food for the reflecting mind. 
I give them to show that we have specie enough for 
a hard currency. 

Bear in mind, that of the $6,000,000,000 of gold 
and silver in Europe and America previous to 1831, 
only $2,400,000,000 was used as currency. 

The issue to-day is : hard money and cheap labor — 
or paper currency and, dear labor. The prudent mer- 
chant can have but one opinion. Franklin was before 
the age with his lightning-rod, but behind it when 
he recommended paper money. Washington was in 
favor of hard money; Jackson would have no other, 
much to the disgust of Biddle ; and James Buchanan 
is of the same opinion. The President, with prophe- 
tic foresight, foreshadowed in his speech in the Senate 
on the Sub-Treasury Bill, the crisis that is upon us. 

" When," said he, " the collapse comes, as come it 
must, it casts laborers out of employment, crushes 
manufacturers and merchants, and ruins thousands of 
honest and industrious citizens." 

Paper money and protection on the one side, against 
hard money and free trade on the other. Protec- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALI> STREET. 219 

tion has exploded ; so have the Banks, with their 
paper currency. 

" Free Trade and Hard Money!" will be the cry 
of the people— and the people are the sovereigns of 
this land. 

Count de Tendilla introduced paper money into the 
world about eight years before Columbus found America* 
When besieged by the Moors, in the Alhambra Palace, 
in 1484, his gold gave out, and he paid his soldiers 
in Written bits of paper, which he afterwards re- 
deemed. Printing soon came into vogue. 

Paper money was not known to the Virginia plant* 
ers and Puritan farmers. Barter was their currency. 
In the Treasury Room of the Winter Palace at St. 
Petersburg, I saw the progress of barter through all 
stages of the precious metals, from the time of Ru- 
rick and of Alfred, to the silver rouble of to-day. The 
North American Indian used wampum. In 1690, Mass- 
achusetts issued her first paper money to pay for the 
conquest of Quebec. (Four years later, the Bank of 
England was organized. Two years afterwards it sus* 
pended payment ; and one hundred years later, it 
stopped again.) South Carolina made her first issue 
in 1702, to pay for her piratical expedition against 
St. Augustine. New-Hampshire and Rhode Island 
issued notes the same year. North Carolina, Conneo- 



220 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL- STREET, 

ticut, New- York, and New- Jersey got their " paper 
mills" agoing in 1713, to pay for the Indian War, 
But Pennsylvania held out till 1722 ; Maryland till 
1733, and Yirginia till 1755. 

It worked very well till it was overdone. The im* 
mense issues of the Revolution killed the child. The 
first period of paper money, after barter, run out in 
seventy-five years. The explosion ruined everybody 
concerned. The second was equally disastrous; and the 
third, coming down from Continental money past the 
U. S. Bank to the present suspension throughout the 
country, I hope will prove more satisfactory to the 
holders of notes. 

" Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Crom* 
well, and George the Third," said Patrick Henry, 
"may profit by their example." 

This brief summary will show that it requires paper 
money to carry out any gigantic enterprise, and that 
in due time the faithful agent, having accomplished 
its work, suddenly explodes. "All those passengers 
that hav'nt paid their fare need'nt — because we're 
bound to pass that ar steamer or bust." — (Albert Smith's 
" Americanisms.") 

Hard Currency is what we want to restore confi* 
dence. Credit is based on faith, but to-day there is 
no faith. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 221 

The Banks issue notes payable on demand. You 
call for the money which you have lent the Banks, 
and lo ! you cannot get it. 

Justice Marshall says, "We dodge round the clause 
in the Constitution prohibiting ' Bills of Credit ' by 
issuing l Bank Notes.' " 

We may say with Law that our "paper mills are 
nothing but sand banks to wreck the National ship." 

The advocate for paper money will no doubt say 
that speculations may be made as wildly on hard 
currency as paper money, and mention California and 
Australia as examples. True, but those lands were far 
from the marts of commerce. Give us an instance 
nearer home. Cuba was much sounder before her 
Banks than after their establishment ! 

We want a currency that will take a man from 
Portland to Pensacola ; from St. Louis to St. Augus- 
tine ; from New- York to New-Orleans ; from Connecti- 
cut to California. Some National currency, based on 
hard money. 

Who will mark out the plan ? 

The Times are Changing. — This crisis should bring 
out some new financial men, for those who have been 
leading us during the last generation do not appear 
to bring their minds up to anything more extensive 
than 1837. 

Is there not such a thing as wisdom going to seed ? 



222 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Even Francis Bacon would be lost in this age of 
steam, while Adam Smith might not have been equal 
to the management of the Illinois Central Uailway ? 
"We must wait for another Albert Granatin, and even 
he, I fear, would be lost in our day. 

I think, however, we can all agree to settle down 
on hard money and free trade. The free traders say 
to the protectionists, " You have had your day for a 
long time ; it is our turn now. Give us a trial, 
and, if we don't succeed with direct taxation, then 
try protection again. 

The shoe trade is protected, yet it is as bad as 
any other. Shipping is protected, yet ship-owners are 
anything but rich. Cotton and woolen mills are pro- 
tected, yet they are all breaking up. The iron in- 
terest is protected, but the iron-masters are not mak- 
ing fortunes. Ask the people to choose, and free trade 
will ring throughout the land. 

With free trade comes hard currency. "We have had 
enough of expansion. 

Another point. Economy must be the order of the 
day. Economy at "Washington — economy in the State 
■ — economy in the city — economy in the country, the 
corporation and the individual — everybody will econo- 
mize in every thing. 

I don't intend to buy another hat this year. I 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 223 

have about twelve months' clothes on hand, and have 
paid my tailor's bill. I have an extra shirt and two 
or three pair of boots. I never smoke ; I never chew ; 
I never drink ; and, since leaving Australia, have never 
driven fast horses. Groing down town I walk, and 
save six cents. Instead of buying three papers every 
morning, I buy one, and get the boy to change it 
for another. (The London Times generally passes up 
one street and down the next before it goes to the 
owner in the country.) I have been in New- York 
several days and have not bought a thing, not even 
a ticket to the theater. In fact, I am only doing 
what everybody else is doing throughout the country. 
Economy — rigid, uncompromising economy on all sides. 

The times are changing. I would rather have the 
wealth of the poor than the poverty of the rich. 
Health, industry, and honesty are at a premium to-day. 
Economy in the palace — economy in the hovel. Gro 
up and down Broadway, you see no purchasers. 

The father says: "Wife, I have lost nearly every- 
thing ; we must economize. We must give up the 
carriage, the horses, the dogs, the coachman and the 
servant girls. Julia can wear the same bonnet an- 
other season. Carrie must not buy that new dress 
now. Bella had better return that French mantle. 
Willie must dispose of those beautiful furs. Charlie 



224 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

must make his old clothes answer to the end of the 
year. Frank must sell his horse ; and, wife, if you 
won't buy anything for twelve months, 1 won't." 

And the good wife cheers the husband, and the 
husband is happy to see how willingly his family 
conform to his change of circumstances. This is 
characteristic of the American mind. An American 
family may change from prosperity to adversity in a 
single day, but the family prayer goes up from the 
family altar, and the family kiss goes round the 
family circle as before — each cheering the other with 
the celestial nectar of sympathy. 

The young will assist the old, and the old will no 
longer sneer at the young. 

Most of us have supplies a year in advance. The 
city is full of stores — the stores are full of goods. 

The same remarks apply to the country as well as 
the town. Stocks are large from north to south, from 
east to west — easy credits tend to enlarge stocks. 

The man who can save a dollar will do so. Every 
individual will follow Micawber's advice to Wilkins, 
to " live within his means." 

Hence, economy in every State — economy in every 
family — and this economy will carry out my argument, 
that prices of all speculative property must drop to 
their natural level. For, where all are sellers, who 
will there be to purchase ? Fashion rules our land ; 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 225 

and as it will be now the fashion to curtail expen- 
ses, who will dare to be extravagant ? 

But even Free Trade, Hard Currency, Cheap Labor, 
and Economy, will not speedily dispel the cloud. The 

TIMES ARE CHANGING. 

The commercial world to-day is an " inverted pyramid" 
— all are watching it, but who can tell on which 
side it is to fall ? 

The West bears the same relation to the East, that 
America does to England. The West has the East's 
money — America has England's. The West is there- 
fore rich on what she owes. 

The same argument applies, in part, to America. 
Credit insinuates itself into every interest, like the 
mixing of liquids or the blending of colors. Trace it. 

America owes England ; bankers owe the holders of the 
notes ; merchants owe banks ; country merchants owe city 
merchants ; farmers oive country merchants, and will 
not sell their grain ; and nobody has any money ; conse- 
quently, nearly everybody fails. At this rate, universal 
liquidation will become a mutual understanding. 

Sampson, of the London Times, one of the cleverest 
financial writers in Europe, estimates American indebted- 
ness to England, on securities, public and private, 
at . . . . . $400,000,000 

The Economist, an established authority, takes the 
same view. 

10* 



226 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

In round numbers, we may add : Indi- 
vidual Debts and Debts of Incorporated 
Companies, Balance of Trade — say, for 
Iron, Hardware, Dry Groods, Borrowed 
Money, and all indebtedness outside of 
the above securities, . $160,000,000 



Showing a sum of . . $560,000,000 

All of which is due Europe during the next few years. 

Large as is this sum — and I have made the amount 
large, so as to be sure and cover — our general cry of 
Economy will balance it in two years' time. 

Let 28,000,000 people economize $10 per 
annum, which can be easily done, you 
have the sum of . $280,000,000 

Two years of such economy, and you 

save . . . $560,000,000 

— The whole amount of our foreign obligations. 

That is one side of the question. England will get 
a portion of her money — not all. The United States 
will pay. Individual States will pay. Repudiation 
would be howled down by the people. The American 
people at heart are honest, though predisposed to in- 
solvency. England need not fear that any State will 
dishonor itself. Even California will pay every penny. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 227 

The people rule this country, and the people will bear 
taxes before dishonor. Those States that hung fire 
in Sydney Smith's time have never been able to hold 
their head as high as their honest neighbors. 

Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, and Michigan must 
pay every dollar before their sister States will invite 
them home to tea. 

The entire debt is but . . $17,000,000 

While the interest has run up to 20,000,000 

Only $37,000,000 to a population in the four States 
of 1,500,000. Now why don't the people take the 
matter out of the hands of politicians. Let each man 
open his pocket-book, take out two dollars and-a-half, 
pay the debt, and be respectable ? The sum is a baga- 
telle when you bring the amount down to the in- 
dividual — (chew one less plug of tobacco a week, and 
the thing is done.) 

Public opinion is a tyrant, but in a case like this 
the tyrant is a man of honor. One of the rising 
poets of England is now in this country, and in his 
pocket is Sydney Smith's original letter to the Penn- 
sylvanians. 'Tis a scorcher — but no Englishman will 
ever again have occasion to write such a scathing 
philippic. We will pay what we owe. 

The railway debts and individual obligations will 
not show such returns as the State and the Nation. 



228 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET 

England may make up her mind to lose a good por- 
tion of these. As a bank manager leads a young 
man into reckless speculation by giving him extensive 
accommodation — so has John Bull dazzled the good 
sense of Jonathan by showing him too much gold. 
The bank manager comes out a loser — so will John. 

'Tis a notorious fact that an Englishman, to get 
two per cent, extra interest, would sell anything but 
his national glory. Three per cent, was the height 
of his ambition — vide consols. Knowing this, we went 
to England with our six, seven, and eight per cent, 
bonds, which bonds we sold loiv — " very cheap, for 
cash," — taking iron at high prices for payment. Re- 
membering his favorite consols, and forgetting the 
warning of Wellington, who told him that " high 
interest was a sure indication of bad security" — they 
bought the bonds — and, speaking ironically, the iron 
masters have got their iron safes full of iron bonds, 
which bonds, by the by, just now are anything but 
iron. 

Many of our bonds we have forced upon the Eng- 
lish capitalist ; much of his iron he has forced upon 
us. "We had agents in England : he had agents in 
America — each trying to overbuy or undersell the other. 
We asked for six months credit. He gave us twelve. 
He has led us into temptation. We, easily persuaded, 
have been tempted, and, not being Josephs, did not 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 229 

resist as we ought to have done. In his avarice to 
grasp the interest, he loses sight entirely of the prin- 
cipal. While beating the bush the bird steps out. 
The old story of the spigot and the bunghole. Had 
our bonds, like his leases, been for ninety-nine years 
— we might, like Hudson, have managed to pay the 
dividends — and we mean even now to pay them, if we 
can. Any way, as we have in some cases paid him 
enough interest to cancel the principal, we must now 
try and make a fair compromise. 

I fancy that an American in London just now is by 
no means a nosegay in the nostrils of an Englishman. # 

The times are changing. 

Importations will fall away. Our Secretary of 
Treasury, instead of having thirty millions in, will dis- 
cover that he is about forty millions out. 

'Tis hardly a year since Secretary Guthrie made his 
calculations for the fiscal year as follows : 

* "I never meet a Pennsylvanian at a London dinner without feel- 
ing a disposition to seize and divide him ; to allot his beaver to one 
sufferer, and his coat to another; to appropriate his pocket handker- 
chief to the orphan, and to comfort the widow with his" (the word 
breeches was written, but is erased), " silver watch, Broadway rings, and 
the London Guide which he always carries in his pocket. How such 
a man can set himself down at an English table without feeling that 
he owes two or three pounds to every man in the company, I am at 
a loss to conceive." — Sydney Smith's Letters (Nov. 3d, 1843,) to the 
" Drab-colored men of Pennsylvania.''' 1 — From the original MSS. 



230 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Balance in Treasury, July 1, 1857, . $22,300,000 

Estimated revenue for fiscal year end- 
ing July 1, 1858, . . 73,000,000 



$95,000,000 



Against which, Government made ap- 
propriations for about . . $80,000,000 

At economy prices we have not far from a year's 
stock of luxuries and necessities in this country. We 
are overcrowded with goods. The city stores are filled 
from cellar to garret. The public warehouses are wait- 
ing to take the duties on some thirty millions of 
bonded goods, which in these economical times are not 
wanted. Government having tried to stem the crisis 
(by emptying the Treasury in canceling their debt) dis- 
covers all at once, that, like Copperfield trying to sleep 
with one eye open, "it can't be done." The money has 
walked out of the sub- treasury. It declines to return. 
Therefore the corn is all off the Cobb. 

No land sales. Importations comparatively nothing. 
Treasury emptied by paying off debt — -before due — at 
premium rates. Extravagance in every department. 
These are some of the ills which financial flesh is heir 
to. So look out, Mr. Cobb, and don't protest Grovern- 
ment drafts, as was the case fifteen years ago, on the 
plea of N. S. F ! 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 231 

Importations will fall off at least one half, for two 
reasons first, economy will make our stocks last a long 
while : second, Europeans will demand cash, or pay- 
ment of old debts "before they trust us for more. " An 
eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," is their law. 
The Romans punished insolvency with death. And the 
Germans hold a dent over a man for forty years. 
"While American laws (vide Bank Suspension) protect 
the debtor, European laws protect the creditor. In 
England, a man who fails seldom again rises above low- 
water mark. In America, where ninety-five out of 
the hundred come down, everybody floats in on the 
flood. 

An American stops once in five years and pays fifty 
cents on the dollar; while an Englishman breaks once 
in ten and pays nothing. American yachts take the 
" cups" upon the water, and American horses take the 
" stakes" upon the land. So, in the case which I have 
given, (I regret to say,) our cousins are beaten two to 
one. 

The reduction in imports will embarrass our ex- 
chequer, and most likely the Secretary will make up 
the revenue deficiency' by an issue of treasury notes. 
Thirty millions will be about the mark. 

Our exports in 1836 (the year before the crisis) were 
$128,600,000, against $190,000,000 imports. In 1840 



232 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

the returns give $132,000,000, against $107,000,000, 
showing an increase of $4,000,000 in exports, and a 
decrease of $83,000,000 in imports. 

This gives a falling off in imports of nearly fifty 
per cent, the third year after the crisis. Secretary 
Cobb must make his estimates with great care, or he 
will come out worse than Neckar did in France. If he 
gets off with less than a forty million loan before 1st 
January, 1859, he will indeed be fortunate. 

Our exports in 1856 were $327,000,000, against 
$315,000,000 imports. 

Imports for the financial year ending 1st July, 1857, 
$360,890,141 (which included $12,461,799 specie, re- 
exported goods, $14,905,509), leaving some $333,532,833 
for home consumption. 

Exports, cotton, . . . $132,000,000 

Manufactures, - . . 126,000,000 

Agricultural and all other produce, . 70,000,000 



$328,000,000 



In 1860 our exports will bid fair to ■ double our im- 
ports ; but in this age of changes 'tis hardly safe to 
make estimates. 

In 1837 we imported wheat, but had no California 
to furnish gold in payment. Now we are exporters of 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 233 

grain, and receivers of some forty millions of gold from 
our own soil ; yet we have to send this gold away to 
pay for the silks and gewgaws of Europe, which trash 
adds nothing to the wealth of the country. 

The times are changing. 

Retrenchment is the order of the day. Banks are 
down ; railways are nowhere ; manufactures are in 
very poor health ; buildings don't pay. By-and-by a 
palace will not rent so high as a prison. Provisions 
must drop ; cotton will probably touch six cents. 
(The world is full of cotton goods. I have found 
them everywhere, from the half-yard round a Hindoo 
to the entire sheet worn by the Turk.) Ships must 
go lower ; land will only be valuable for what it 
produces; labor, like everything else, will be much 
cheaper. Everything in the country, from a lady's 
dress to the Government estimates, has been inflated. 

Some of our journals are harping upon our splendid 
crops. I believe that the crops are about as much 
over-estimated as other things have been. They talk 
of bringing the crops forward, as if the export of 
grain would cancel our foreign obligations. 

Figures don't lie. Study this table ; I see nothing 
therein to warrant such a hue and cry about. Our 
entire exportation of grain would hardly pay for the 
ribbons and laces which are annually imported. (We 
are an extravagant people.) 



234 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



Export of Breadstuffs to Great Britain and Ireland from 

all parts. 

Barrels Barrels Bushels Bushels 

Total from Sept. 1, Flour. C. Meal. Wheat. Corn. 

1856 to Sept. 1, 1857 849,600 685 7,479,401 4,746,278 

1855 " 1856 1,641,265 6,816 7,956,406 6,731,161 

1854 " 1855 175,209 4,768 324,427 6,679,138 

1853 " 1854 1,846,920 41,726 6,038,003 6,049,371 

1852 " 1853 1,600,449 100 4,823,519 1,425,278 

1851 " 1852 1,427,442 1,680 2,728,442 1,487,398 

1850 " 1851 1,559,584 5,620 1,496,355 2,205,601 

1849 « 1850 474,757 6,411 461,276 4,753,358 

1848 " 1849 1,137,556 82,900 1,140,194 12,685,260 

1847 " 1848 182,583 108,534 241,309 4,390,226 

1846 " 1847 3,155,844 844,187 4,000,359 17,157,659 

Total, eleven years 14,051,209 1,103,427 36,689,691 68,310,728 

This gives an average (estimating the flour and 
meal at four bushels to the barrel) of about 15,000,000 
bushels per annum; or, at a dollar a bushel, $15,- 
000,000, which would about half pay for the Illinois 
Central Railroad. As some extensive shipments of 
breadstuffs went to the Continent last year, I give the 

Exports from the United States during the last Four Years. 













Barrels 
Flour. 


Barrels 
C. Meal. 


Bushels 
Wheat. 


Bushels 
Corn. 


Sept. 


1, 1856, 


to 


Sept. 


1, 1857 . . 


. 483,344 


2,875,653 


543,590 


216,162 


u 


1855, 




u 


1856 . . 


. 748,408 


2,610,079 


282,083 


1,975,478 


u 


1854, 




a 


1855 .. 


7,763 


4,972 


308,428 


35,569 


it 


1853, 




u 


1854 . , 


. . 791,028 


1,904,893 


90,556 


318,882 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 235 

Another line of figures will show that even bread- 
stuffs .have a margin for depreciation. The farmers, 
if they take my advice, will sell ; all hands will he 
at the plough next year. 

A Comparative Table of Prices on 1st September for the last 
Ten Years, 





State Flour. 


Red Wheat. 


White Wheat. 


Rye. 


Ind. Corn 


1857 .. 


. $5 75 a 6 35 


1 40 a 1 52 


1 55 a 1 78 


93 a 95 


84 a 93 


1856 .. 


. 5 90 a 6 50 


1 50 a 1 54 


1 62 a 1 65 


88 a 90 


60 a 70 


1855 .. 


. 7 50 a 8 75 


1 75 a 1 85 


1 90 a 1 93 


1 00 a 1 10 


87 a 88 


1854 .. 


. 9 75 a 10 00 


1 60 a 1 88 


1 90 a 2 10 


1 20 a 1 22 


86 a 88 


1853 .. 


. 5 75 a 6 00 


1 15 a 1 23 


1 35 ajl 42 


90 a 98 


75 a 78 


1852 ., 


,. 4 31 a 4 56 


70 a 95 


1 00 a 1 10 


80 a 81 


71 a 72 


1851 .. 


. 3 87 a 4 00 


60 a 65 


90 a 1 05 


67 a 68 


57 a 58 


1850 .. 


. 4 25 a 4 50 


80 a 90 


90 a 1 13 


69 a 70 


61 a 62 


1849 .. 


. 5 25 a 5 50 


90 a 1 10 


1 10 a 1 28 


59 a 60 


60 a 63 


1848 ., 


. 5 94 a 6 00 


1 00 a 1 05 


1 18 a 1 30 


73 a 74 


62 a 72 



Why should'nt the estimate of crops be as much 
exaggerated as is every other interest in the coun- 
try? Those interested had better overhaul their sta- 
tistics. 'T would be no laughable matter to discover 
that, after bragging so much, we possessed so little. 

The shipments of grain from Chicago to 31st Octo- 
ber, 1856, were 19,496,022 bushels, while to the 
17th October, 1857, only 13,751,438 bushels have 
gone forward. 

The Banks did not suspend till the 14th October, 



236 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

therefore the disorganization of exchanges will not ac- 
count for a falling off of some 5,000,000 bushels at 
that port alone. Depend upon j it, the grain crop this 
year has expanded only in imagination. 

If America has 20,000,000 "bushels to spare before 
1st September, 1858, it will be 5,000,000 more than 
the usual average (and about 10,000,000 more than 
I estimate). But taking the brightest view of it, the 
entire sum would only about pay for the Michigan 
Southern Railroad. 

Let the bankers leave the farmers to manage their 
own affairs. The crops will find their way to market 
by the stern law of supply and demand. When prices 
warrant, the grain will come. Suppose we had the 
crops in New- York — what then ? European advices 
don't warrant shipments. Since the first shipment of 
Indian corn — since Iglehart made the present of Indian 
meal to the Queen — since James McHenry organized 
the trade, and introduced American corn and American 
provisions to the British public — from the first opera- 
tion to the last shipment, America has lost money by 
the speculation. Who will dispute it ? I have made 
out too many invoices — examined too many account 
sales, to be led away by the shipment of grain on 
English quotations, with the expectation of profit. One 
year it may pay ; the next 'tis a losing game ; but, 



Young America in Wall-street. 23? 

at any rate, the prices quoted by the late mail give 
little encouragement to a shipper. 

The farmers had better sell, or next year they will 
realize less money. 

The crops in Continental Europe were never better. 
^Passing through France, Italy, Germany, (a thousand 
miles in the interior of Russia,) Sweden, Norway, Den- 
mark, and Holland, good crops met my gaze on all 
sides. 

In Great Britain, the wheat crop is splendid ; all 
other crops are bad* 

The fact is, after we have fed our own population, 
we must depend upon a European famine for the sale 
of any surplus grain we may raise, over and above 
our 15,000,000 bushels, which we annually ship to Great 
Britain, and generally at a loss to the shipper. 

The statistics prove that notwithstanding our activity 
in shipping grain during the Irish famine, the entire 
quantity only amounted to about nine days' consumption 
to the people of the United Kingdom. 

Shipments from the West to New- York, and from 
New- York to Europe, are generally made to regulate 
exchanges, with the hope of profit. 

The farmers had better sell, or they will find to their 
cost, that, at the end of the year, they are poor in 
purse, although they think themselves rich in grain. 



238 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

Andrews, (page 619,) gives the pro- 
duction of 1852, of "Wheat, . 143,000,000 bush. 
Indian Corn, .... 652,000,000 " 

Oats and Rye, 4 176,000,000 " 

How much more has been grown during the past 
year of " unexampled prosperity?" 

That year, our agricultural products amounted to 
$1,752,563,042, 

From Corn, the king of the Westj I turn to Cotton? 
the king of the South. 

Do the Southerners suppose for a moment that they 
can resist the course of the storm ? They have but 
experienced the puff that precedes the hurricane. The 

TIMES ARE CHANGING. 

The South should wait till the "Arabia" touches 
the shores of England with the news of the bank 
suspensions, before they issue any Southern manifest 
toes, that they are rich while the North is poor. 

Our cotton twists around the British Lion are iron 
bands. Cobden, a quarter of a century ago, told the 
English people that America possessed the power that 
would eventually ruin the Britisrf nation. 

In 1832, (about the time that the Iron Duke got his 
windows broken by the Reform mob,) the United States 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 239 

exported but 322,215,122 pounds of cotton, amounting 
to ..-.-$ 31,724,682 

Three years later the export increased to 

387,358,992 pounds, amounting to - 64,961,302 
In 1852, (Andrews,) it rose to 1,290,000,- 

000, pounds, amounting to - - 129,000,000 

Last year to 1,351 ,431,801 lbs. valued at 128,382,351 

Planters and factors estimate the present 

crop, in round numbers, at 3,000,000 

bales, at 400 lbs. the bale. 1,200,000,- 

000 lbs. at 16 cents, (the anticipated 

price, before the crisis,) would be - 192,000,000 
But at 8 cents, which I think is too high an 

estimate, the crop would only amount to 96,000,000 

When the Southerners realize the fact that they 
must sell their cotton (as well as negroes) for about 
half of last year's prices, notwithstanding the loss of 
the Indian crop, they will be less confident. 

England has been forcing her manufactured goods 
upon all nations. But now — 

The times are changing. America has been the 
producer— she is to be the manufacturer, and that f 
too, under free trade. Money and labor were the 
rivals that we have had to contend with. Labor must 
drop towards English rates, and money will be cheaper 



S40 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

in America than in any part of the world. For a long 
period England has taken the cotton from our planta- 
tions to the sea-board,— from the sea-board to Livers- 
pool, — -from Liverpool over a British rail to Manchester — ■ 
where British factories turn out the goods which she 
sends back to us in a British steamer — pays us a high 
duty, and sells us our own staple at prices lower than 
our own manufacturers. 

Secretary Walker, in his Treasury Report of 1845, 
said that the cotton crop yielded then but $72,000,000 5 
while the manufactured fabric produced some $500,000,000 
—the balance of which all goes to foreign merchants, 
foreign bankers, foreign factories, and foreign laborers, 

Credit — steam — were the agents. The Arabia's arrival 
will shake the former to its centre, and a loss of 
credit reduces the value of steam. America will profit 
by that experience. 

The Southerners make the most of their cotton. 
The Northerners are as proud of the crop as their 
Southern neighbors. Yet there is something besides 
cotton in these United States. 

California produces a third of a cotton crop every 
year in hard gold. While the cotton of the South 
amounts to hardly a third of the corn crop of the 
North. 
In 1852 the corn crop amounted to . $391,000,000 

The cotton crop was but . . 129,000,000 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 241 

We produce another staple in this land — a staple 
for cattle to feed upon — that we stack in the open 
air, and tread under our feet as if it were of no 
value. I mean the hay crop, which amounted in 
1852 to $190,000,000. Some sixty millions more 
than the entire cotton crop of the South ; and yet 
who reflects upon it? The North talks less about its 
hay, corn, and wheat together, than the South regard- 
ing its cotton. 

There is still another interest greater than cotton, or 
corn, or hay. 

In 1852 the total value of the industrial produc- 
tions of the United States amounted to $2,932,762,042. 



11 



PURSUIT 

OF KNOWLEDGE UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 
INTERROGATIONS. 

Having just arrived from Europe, I feel like John 
Bunyan, that I am in pursuit of knowledge under 
difficulties. Many new words have been coined — many 
new customs introduced — some of which I do not un- 
derstand. Therefore not daring to make assertions on 
so short an acquaintance, what possible harm can 
there be in asking a few good-natured questions ? 
Afterwards I will open a chapter on Europe, and then 
return once more to America. 



If the banks had on the 2d May $108,000,000 
liabilities, and only $12,000,000 specie, was it not 
prudent to reduce their obligations to $76,000,000 on 
3d of October? 



244 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Why did the banks allow themselves to be bloated 
up with diseased corporation paper ? 

Is it true that the banks first broke the railways, 
and, in trying to break the merchants, broke them- 
selves. 

Is the suspension of specie payment a remedy for 
our financial disorder, or only a make-shift expedient? 

Was the banking dentist surprised, when drawing 
Jonathan's financial tooth, to find the whole set false? 
Shouldn't he have recognized his own teeth ? 

Have the banks humbugged their customers by lend- 
ing them their own deposits ? 

On which principle of law or morality have the 
judges decided that a bank may bend under " suspen- 
sion," and only break under failure ? 

If I hold a bank note, is the bank indebted to me 
for a loan of gold, or am I indebted to the bank for 
giving me an engraving with a signature ? 

Are the judges personally acquainted with the presi- 
dents of the banks ? 

Would they, if invited, take a cigar and a seat in 
the bank parlor for half an hour ? 

Have they any paper under discount ? Any depo- 
sits ? Any bank stock ? 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



245 



Is it true that the President and Cashier consti- 
tute the bona fide Board of Directors ? 

Are the bankers really more respectful to a man in a 
seedy coat than they were before the suspension ? 

Is it true that you can now talk with a Bank Presi- 
dent, instead of being coolly turned over to an assistant 
cashier as formerly ? 

Do the old, the most respectable, the rich and 
high-toned Bank Boards still think that the grain 
grows down in Front Street ? 

Do the " kid glove party " still supply a sufficient 
quantity of " bang-up gilt-edged" paper? 

Do the banks ever discount accommodation notes ? 
Have the " paper mills " also suspended ? 

Were the bags in the window of the Wall Street 
Savings Bank, marked U. S. M., filled with real 
gold? 

If so, why did not the Directors remove the card 
just under them, of " Offices to let ; inquire ivithin" ? 

How much gold did Mr. Leavitt have in the vault 
when he proclaimed to the " excited populace " that, 
"sink or swim — live or die — survive or perish," the 
American Exchange Bank would pay out every dol- 
lar ? 



246 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Did the old banks really think they could break 
all the new ones, and yet save themselves ? 

"What did Mr. Grallatin and Mr. Tilestone mean 
when, a few hours before the banks burst, they issued 
that " celebrated circular " from the Clearing House, 
guaranteeing the " maintenance of specie payments," 
and asserting that " no further contraction was 
necessary " to accomplish said object ? 

Do the banks, by expanding beyond a prudent line, 
and then suddenly contracting, occasion periodical 
panics ? 

Does our inflated credit system drive our hard-earned 
coin out of the land, to pay for useless trash which 
our extravagant habits have ordered from abroad ? 

Do the Boston Savings Banks still loan on three 
good names ? 

Has any thing . been paid in the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature for " Log Rolling," to obtain an increase of 
bank capital during the last few years ? 

Are their prayers likely to be answered when they 
pray again, next session, for a similar purpose ? 

Is the Stevens and Appleton correspondence consi- 
dered dignified ? 

Or, in other words, which was the most high-toned, 
the " New- York insolence," or the " Boston presumption" ? 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 24? 

Since the Suspension, don't bill-holders consider their 
paper rather hard currency? 

Have any of the merchants taken in any of the 
Banks (in confidence) as junior partners ? 

Has our Banking system entirely nullified the clause 
in the Constitution that provides that " gold and silver" 
shall be "the only legal tender?" 

Will any one doubt that the times are changing 
when it is known that Western Banks, having lost all 
confidence in Eastern Bankers, apply to their lawyers 
to receive and disburse their funds ? 

Ousrht we not to claim damages under a " Breach 
of Promise," for seducing our gold out of our pockets 
with a "promise to pay" it back again? 

Would not " Sperma-677//" have been a better name 
than "Island City" to illustrate "lighting the candle 
at both ends" ? for is it not a gro-oer fraud? 

If Cotton Spindle, Kite & Co. have a million assets 
over liabilities, are they considered failed ? Should 
they not be " suspended" for asking for a renewal ? 

Why are Calcutta goods being shipped to England, 
where, on arrival, the price will be about one-half the 
original invoice ? 

Why are American provisions coming back from 
England by almost every steamer ? 



S48 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET* 

Do the shippers expect to save their bacon by this 
new process of kiting? 

Can friction be prevented by packing "pork on 
bacon" ? 

What advantage is derived by sending cotton from 
New-Orleans to England by way of Lowell, in Massa- 
chusetts ? 

Are solvent merchants liable to be tripped up by 
providing for both sides of the Bill Book ? 

Are "Flying Kite" and "Raising the Wind" good 
names for clipper ships ? 

Does sugar increase in weight as it falls in value 1 

What is the meaning of the historical term, "solid 
men of Boston" ? 

What does the Wise Governor of Virginia ask to-day 
for a couple of hundred fat ones ? 

Are the lawyers really making money? 

Are the preachers " reading up" to find texts suit- 
able for the crisis ? 

Have the expenses of the ladies expanded in the 
same proportion as their dresses ? 

Has "Flora McFlimsey" really "nothing to Wear? 

Has " Fitz-Frivol" really " nothing to do ?" 

Was Dr. Johnson right in asserting that Credit was 
only a premium on the Imagination? 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 249 

Would ladies buy diamonds at Tiffany's, and silks 
at Stewart's, if they had to count out the hard dollars 
on the counter ? 

Will the fashionable lady six months hence insist 
upon dressing her child like an ostrich, and herself 
like an inverted champaigne glass ? 

Does Brown still arrange these " white kid" par- 
ties ? 

Will not the crisis be the means of putting the ever- 
lasting discussion of negro slavery to bed for a while ? 

Who will be our next President ? 

Don't you think that Fremont had better remain on 
his "Butterfly estate " 'till after the next election ? 

Did you approve of the Members of Congress rais- 
ing' their own wages last session ? 

If so, don't you think it would be a good idea to 
raise the salaries of our foreign ministers, so that they 
can represent the United States as they should be re- 
presented ? 

Do Members of Congress who spit on the floor ex- 
pect-to-rate as gentlemen ? 

Do you believe that anything but the postage on pro- 
tested bills will keep the Post Office Revenue up to 
$7,000,000 per annum ? 

If you had been some time in a foreign land, would 



250 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL- STREET. 

you not have supposed that the " Adriatic," like the 
" Flying Dutchman," was a phantom ship ? 

Do you not think that Cunard ought to have a 
testimonial from the American people for carrying our 
mails some twenty years, without ever missing fire, 
even in the coldest weather ? 

Don't you think our railways would he "better man- 
aged, if the Directors lived on the line of road, and 
the President kept out of "Wall-street? 

Don't you think it would he a good move to sink 
Wall-street ; explode the Brokers' Board ; and kill 
every "Bull" and "Bear" in the country? 

Do you think that the President of the Erie Rail- 
road ought to receive the same salary as the Presi- 
dent of the United States ? 

Do you agree with Punch, that, in case of a rail- 
way accident, absence of body is hetter than presence 
of mind? 

Do you think the Tribune ought to rap a man over 
the knuckles for heing too national at a Fourth of 
July dinner, in a foreign land, when asked to respond 
to the sentiment, "Our Country?" 

What good does it do to quarrel with the w ;rk! 

Do you think Mrs. Cunningham is getting up another 
bogus baby ? 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 251 

"Were you not surprised when it was announced that 
the New-York Independent had "suspended" (its List 
of Failures) ? 

"Will not that "Pillow" require a clean "case" 
since that last sixty-four pounder ? 

If the Greneral's breaches " are as soft as Downy 
Pillows are," may we not consider him bomb-proof ? 

" What is the price of putty, since that " extra 
judicial decision ?" 

"Will you accept my apology for having tired you 
with so many questions ? 



I had written thus far, when Messrs. Pudney & 
Russell's " devil " entered my room for more "copy," 
so I close this page " with the assurances of my 
highest consideration," and a promise to open another 
on the morrow. 



AMERICAN CONTEMPLATIONS AND 
EUROPEAN CONVERSATIONS. 

The Crisis — Two sides to every question — The Wail of the Tempest 
— Crosses the Ocean — Joint Stock Banks of England — "Arabia's" 
arrival a spark in the tinder box — "South Sea Bubble" and 
Western Lands — Panic of 1825 — Specie Exportation — Anglo-Ame- 
rican Houses in 1837 — Their Escape — Long Credits — An Illustra- 
tion — The Result — A China Operation — India owes Manchester — 
England has trusted all the World, and the World is Bankrupt 
— Indian Loan — Where the Gold and Silver go to — All Nations 
demanding Specie at Bank of England — Goose with the Golden 
Egg — Native receives, but seldom pays away, a Sovereign — Western 
States owe Eastern — Bank of England Statements in 1847 and 1857 
— Russell's Letter stops the Panic — English Railway Mania — Credit 
Mobilier— Law's Land Scheme — " Popular Delusions " — Louis Na- 
poleon as a Financier — His eventful History — The Bourse — Louis 
Philippe Dethroned— Conspirators — Revolution of 1789 and 1848 — 
A Dozen Applicants for the Throne of France — Louis Napoleon has 
no partner — Italy Dying — Bonaparte wishes to send the Pope to 
Jerusalem — Germany is Republican — King of Prussia on the brink 
of the Grave — Oscar, King of Sweden, not expected to Live — Tur- 
key no account — The Constantinople Farce at Osborne — Union of 
Principalities — Russia the Strongest Government in Europe — Conver- 
sation with the Grand Duke Constantine — His Character — Russia 
despises England — Nijni-Novgorod, a wonderful Fair — Distrust in 
Europe — Napoleon scents the Fray — Pereire— Napoleon, the Uncle— 



254 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

The Nephew — Meeting of the Emperors — Striking Coincidence — No 
Harm in reporting the Conversation — Shakespearian Maxims — 
Punch — The Emperor of Russia and the Emperor of France dis- 
cuss the Political Affairs of the World — The Times are Changing — 
Conquest of Mexico and Conquest of India — England must look to 
America — American Sympathy — England will treat us better in the 
Future than in the Past — The Georges — Victoria visits America, 
which soothes all Irritation, and a Hundred Thousand Americans 
land in India to introduce a Bible and a Steam Engine to the 
Asiatic Race. 

Since Adam was a schoolboy there have always been 
two sides to every question. The present crisis, how- 
ever, seems to be an exception. "All the world and 
the rest of mankind" think (?) the worst has passed. 
I don't ; and, as free discussion is open to every Ameri- 
can on every subject, I propose to take the opposite 
side of the apparently prevailing opinion, and give my 
reasons why I think the immediate future is about as 
black as a thunder cloud. 

Fair play is a jewel — so is consistency ; and, while 
I simply ask for the former, I will try and practice 
the latter. 

The cause that will not allow a peep at both sides 
of the argument must be poor indeed. 

I will write as good sense as I can, and shall feel 
contented if I succeed in making it " common." Any- 
way, I ought not to be gibbeted for daring to express 
an opinion ; and yet suspension is too common to ex- 
cite remark. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 255 

In the last few pages I have been a listener, now 
I intend to talk, and " no questions asked." I may 
again look at the past, to show its bearings on the 
present ; but now I propose to take a speculative view 
of the future. 

Let us commence by following the trail of the sus- 
pension of the New-York banks. Note well the course 
of the gale. 

The East on the West — the West on the North — 
the North on the South — the South back again on the 
East — the gale increasing to a tempest, sweeping every 
bank from its path — the tempest quickening to a ty- 
phoon, till it reaches the sea-board, crosses the ocean, 
strikes down the great Anglo-American houses, pressing 
the Banks of England and France to follow the ex- 
ample of fourteen hundred banks in this country, and 
makes the throne of Bonaparte totter to its bloody 
base. Then, like a huge tidal wave, the reaction 
washes again our shores, surging, tearing, swamping 
everything in its way — crosses and recrosses the Atlan- 
tic — carrying disaster with the moaning of every tide. 

One hundred and sixty millions of dollars are on 
deposit in the joint stock banks of England on call. 
The "Arabia" would reach England about the 25th 
October, with the news of our misfortunes. Each 
succeeding mail records the failure of a hundred banks. 



256 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

You can imagine the effect. Depositors get frightened. 
One man rushes to a bank. The disease will be as 
contagious there as it has been here. If one bank 
closes — down they all must tumble. 

The finances of England are more rotten than ours 
appear to be. Her speculations are almost as wild as 
those of former times. 'Tis only one hundred and thir- 
ty-eight years since the " South Sea bubble " exploded. 
The capital stock was but one hundred and ninety mil- 
lions of dollars. (The joint stock banks have nearly 
as much on deposit.) That bubble was got up to pay 
off the national debt. Walpole battled against the 
scheme, but without avail. The stock rose one thou- 
sand per cent. (Land in Chicago has advanced, in 
some instances, fifteen hundred per cent.) The peo- 
ple of England were bubble-mad. All kinds of pro- 
jects were under way in 1720. 

There was one : 

" To make deal boards out of saw-dust." 

Linklater, in the Court of Bankruptcy, asked Humph- 
rey Brown, who had swindled the Royal British Bank 
out of four hundred thousand dollars, whether he had 
experimented in that way ? 

Another company was formed, 

" For importing walnut trees from Virginia." 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 257 

(I doubt if Eli Thayer's emigration project in the 
same State will give any better result.) 

But one sharper astonished London, by advertising: 

" A Company for carrying on an undertaking of great 
advantage, but nobody to know what it is." 

That day his office was crowded, and he could but 
be surprised himself to find at night ten thousand 
dollars paid in. He pocketed the money, and bolted 
for the Continent. 

(Colonel Waugh, last year, stole twelve hundred 
thousand dollars from the London and Eastern Joint 
Stock Bank, and, as usual, went over to France for 
his health.) 

" The head-long fools plunge into South Sea water 
But the sly long heads wade in with caution arter." 

The poet, Gray, was ruined by the bubble. 

In 1825, England was again ripe for speculating in 
all kinds of Joint Stock enterprises. The nation was 
nearly bankrupt. The Bank was on the brink of 
ruin, when a Director found a box of small notes. 
$23,000,000 were issued, and back came the gold ; 
but the panic was most disastrous. 

(America, the same year, caught the Joint Stock fever. 



258 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



As it was in the South Sea scheme, for every project, 
ten times the capital was at once subscribed.) 
Take an instance or two : 

Capital Required. Amt. subscribed. 

For the New- York Water Works, $2,000,000 $10,000,000 

For the Blackstone Canal, at Providence, 500,000 1,500,000 

For the Morris Canal Banking Company, 1,000.000 20,000,000 

? Twas the same with the Bank of Southwalk, and 
a score of other schemes. 

In July, 3826, down they began to tumble. Paper 
money caused the excessive importations, and, as always 
has been, and always must be, drove the specie out 
of the country. 

The exports of silver for the fiscal year 
ending 30th September, 1825, were $8,600,000 

Imports same time, . . , 6,000,000 



Showing a loss to the country of $2, 600, 000 

for foreign luxuries that we did not need. 

In 1837 the English capitalists were put on their 
metal by their American losses. Wilde, Wiggin, and 
Wilson had a large share of the American trade. 
Nobody suspected them — yet when the mails arrived 
without remittances they succumbed to the times, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 259 

The " Round Robin" from the merchants of Liver- 
pool, and the assistance of the Bank of England 
kept Brown, Shipley & Co. on there feet, and Lord 
Ashburton came to the timely aid of Baring Brothers 
& Co. This was about the time that Greorge Pea- 
body came down from Manchester, and commenced 
his career in London. 

Rothschilds were too powerful to trouble themselves 
with so small a place as America. (Just after this, 
Vincent Nolte practiced his cotton swindling specu- 
lation upon the New-Orleans merchants.) 

'Tis to be hoped that these great houses will weather 
the storm. But when I consider the import and ex- 
port trade between England and America, amounting 
to some five hundred millions of dollars, most of 
which passes directly or indirectly through the hands 
of a few firms, I can but feel that the breaking of 
the American machinery would be apt to disarrange 
the British engine. 

The Atlantic is bridged with credits ; and nothing 
is so precarious as the system of living on exchanges. 

If one steamer's arrival without the needful, upsets 
a small house, how many mails will it take to bring 
down a large one ? 

The English merchant and the English banker an- 



260 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



ticipate the good, but are never prepared for the bad 
times. 

Never in the whole history of commerce have cre- 
dits been so expanded as now. Metaphysics is not so 
difficult a study. The science of financiering is per- 
fect. 

Take an operation of a merchant not a hundred 
miles from Broadway. 

(I was initiated into the mysteries in the smoking 
room of Meurice's Hotel, at Paris. Greorge Hudson 
at same time introduced me to the English railway 
system.) 

An importer of good standing, who has paid cash 
before — always prompt, good customer, &c, &c. — calls 
upon the manufacturer at Lyons. Not wishing to pay 
for goods at once, he says to seller, " Sixty days 
after you have made the shipment from Havre, draw 
upon your banker at four months, and I will send 
out a credit of mine to pay the bills at maturity." 
All right. The contract is signed. 

The importer in due time sends to his banker a 
letter of credit at four months, payable in London, 
which the banker discounts, and pays the manufac- 
turer's bills. Therefore, ten months after the goods 
were bought at Lyons, the* four months acceptances 
must be met. The importer goes to his New- York 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 261 

banker, and gives his acceptance at sixty days, for a 
sixty day bill on England, which he remits to his 
London banker to pay the Paris draft. 

Recapitulation. 

No drafts made till sixty, days after shipment from Harre... 2 months. 

Manufacturer draws on his banker at 4 " 

Importer sends his agent letter of credit to pay manufac- 
turer's draft 4 " 

Buys acceptance in New- York to meet bill in England 2 " 

Bill sixty days 2 " 

(Course of mail fifteen days each way.) — 

Total 14 " 

Here you have an old-fashioned cash transaction, 
worked out to a twelve months credit, over and above 
the time the bills are on the ocean ; each party re- 
ceiving a slice of the commissions, and the Fifth 
Avenue consumer, or the landed proprietor in the fash- 
ionable watering place of Cairo (located at the junc- 
tion of the Mississippi and Ohio river for the express 
purpose of finding a good terminus for the Illinois 
Central Railway), gets credit for the whole , — when, 
Presto ! the Ohio Life and Trust Company shows that 
when people appear to have the most life, they are 
least to be trusted! And, to trace the operation to 
a conclusion, the creditors of the London banker are 
surprised to find that there's a difference between 
banker's paper and hard currency ! 



262 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET 

This simple transaction between a New- York mer- 
chant and a Lyons manufacturer, may appear com- 
plicated, but 'tis the simplest thing imaginable. The 
system covers the world. 

Apply the same analysis to every other interest, and 
you will realize the signification of a "long credit." 
Now, if you can fly the kite so high in the North Atlan- 
tic, contemplate for a moment what the shrewd financier 
can accomplish in India, China, and Australia ! No 
well-organized house on those seas pretend to manage 
their " extensive operations" without a dozen partners, 
in about as many firms, in different parts of the world. 

Canton on Calcutta — Calcutta on Shanghai — Shanghai 
on Batavia — Batavia on Melbourne — Melbourne on Co- 
lombo — then Glasgow, and Manchester: — till at last it 
strikes the banker in London between the eyes, who 
is obliged to -go over to the Bank of England to get 
their "promises to pay" (in the absence of sovereigns), 
and should the Bank of England happen to be short 
the whole pile of bricks tumbles in together. 

Accustomed to the simple kiting operations of State 
Street, of course I bored the " Eastern Nabobs" with 
inquiries about their wonderful system. 

"My good fellow, you accept our hospitality; now 
take my advice and don't ask too many questions." 
There was invariably a quiet smile with the reply, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 263 

which spoke volumes ; but nevertheless I looked, I lis- 
tened. I talked, and came to the philosophic conclusion 
that there was " something rotten" in many States 
besides Denmark. 



As I have had a word to say upon most of the 
banking institutions of the world, it may be well to 
add a page on the condition of financial affairs at the 
Australian gold fields. The " Royal Charter" brings 
latest dates ; and, as 1857, in some respects, at Mel- 
bourne, may resemble 1854, so far as over stocked 
markets and extensive failures are concerned, I will 
take up the bank statements of the respective years. 

Abstract of the Average Liabilities and Assets of the Banking 
Companies in Victoria, Australia. 

For the Quarter ending June 30th, 1854. Ending June 30th, 1857. 

Liabilities. Liabilities. 

Deposits not b'ring int. $25,000,000 
Bearing interest, 4,700,000 



Deposits not bearing interest, $30,000,000 $29,700,000 

Notes in circulation, 11,000,000 11,500,000 

Bills in circulation, 300,000 500,000 

Balances due to other banks, 6,000,000 4,300,000 

Reserved fund, profit and loss 

account, 300,000 



Total liabilities, $47,600,000 $46,000,000 



264 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Assets, (same quarter.) Assets, (same quarter.) 

Coin $14,000,000 $11,500,000 

Bullion 3,000,000 2,600,000 

Landed property 500,000 1,400,000 

Notes and bills of other banks 1,500,000 800,000 

Balances due fr'm other banks 4,300,000 5,000,000 

Notes and bills discounted and 

all other debts due to the 

banks 31,200,000 37,000,000 

Government securities, 1,500,000 2,000,000 



Total assets $50,000,000 $60,000,000 

June 30th, 1854. June 30th, 1857. 

Capital paid in $15,000,000 $26,000,000 

Amount of dividend 1,500,000 . . ." 1,600,000 

Amount of reserved profits 

after declaring dividend . . . 2,600,000 6,000 000 

Like every other place, the markets of Australia have 
been forced — over-done. 

All kinds of stocks, save breadstuff's, are already far 
above the consuming powers of the people, and still 
shipments to an immense amount are on the way from 
England. 

Most of the English, Australian and other foreign 
shipments, for some time past, have been made simply 
to keep the kiting wheels on the turn. Shipper buys 
on credit ; gets advance from banker, and with said 
advance pays some old note that cannot be reneived 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 265 

again. Ship charters have often been made in the same 
way. Take up ship ; pay as little as possible in cash ; 
fill up with passengers (all which is cash in hand) ; 
get advance on freight list ; make shipments and get 
advance on them, and draw sight-bills on Australia 
against anticipated homeward freight. Eat;h of these 
transactions fills up the cash-box and pays old obliga- 
tions that cannot be worked any finer. On the other 
side — buy your stores on six months, which means 
twelve ; buy your water casks on twelve months, 
which means eighteen ; don't give the crew any ad- 
vance if you can help it ; and, in short, receive every- 
thing possible, but pay away nothing. Then overdraw 
your bank-account little by little, till it amounts to 
about $150,000, and after that you are safe. You 
have got the manager fast. So long as the bank holds 
out, the merchant is all right ; because the bank, like 
the fox in the trap, will tell every body that the mer- 
chant is A number one. 

Humphrey Brown, of the Royal British, and Colonel 
Waugh, of the London and Eastern, are instances of 
what I intend to describe. 

The Australian banks are sound — much sounder than 
either those in America, England or France — yet you 
will readily see that, with sixty millions of liabilities 
and but fourteen millions of specie, they are not in 

12 



266 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET- 

a position to stand a run. But Australia is too far 
off for that. 



India alone owes Manchester some $30,000,000-— 
(while London owes India twice xhat) — dependent upon 
cotton, opium, and indigo. Those staples are lulled hy 
the Indian revolution, so Manchester is a loser. The 
" Persia," with dates to 17th October, announces the 
arrival of the unwelcome messenger of distrust in Glas- 
gow, Manchester, and Lyons. England, having over- 
done her foreign trade hy crowding every land with 
her manufactured goods, all sold on credit, will not 
fully realize her mistake till the "Arabia" arrives with 
our explosion. 

Manchester has now no foreign market— and credit 
gone — she is without money : hence Southern planters 
will realize but about one-half their expected price fox 
cotton. Carlyle somewhere says that the only way 
to keep the Manchester spindles on the turn is by 
spinning cotton a farthing a yard cheaper than the 
rest of the world. Manchester has a large amount 
of capital locked up in manufactured goods, which 
to-day would not return the first cost for the raw 
material. Expanded credit creates demand : contract 
it, demand falls off; and down go prices. 

England has let her money go, not only beyond her 
fingers' end, but beyond her finger nails. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 26? 

The English public will shortly be called upon for 
seventy-five millions of dollars to carry on the Indian 
war — for the Honorable Company have tried in vain to 
raise the wind in Hindostan, although they have raised 
a whirlwind among the Sepoys. 

India, like China, can produce just as much as the 
world happens to require. 

Indian exports, from $20,000,000 in 1837, have 
quadrupled to $85,000,000 in 1857. 

From $40,000,000 twenty years ago, Indian pro- 
ductions have grown to $125,000,000 per annum now. 
The Indians, in 1846, were contented with draining 
away $14,000,000 a year in silver ; latterly, they re- 
quire between sixty and seventy millions. 

All the gold of California and Australia, and all the 
silver from Mexico and South America, flows into Eng- 
land, but does it remain there ? By no means. All 
the world are after it. France buys millions every 
month. Austria gets it when she can. Russia received 
some of it (from England, by the way of France, 
towards the railways). India and China take about six 
millions per month. And now the Eastern trade is 
breaking up, the Honorable Company will require, 
monthly, about the same amount, to pay and feed 
eighty thousand British troops. 

All the world are standing at the door of the Bank 



268 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 



of England, with a banker's check for gold ; and the 
Bank of England has only fifty millions to meet some 
one hundred and ninety millions of liabilities. America, 
too, with characteristic presumption, (forgetting her im- 
mense European obligations,) expects the lion's share, 

'Tis "the unkindest cut of all," for America to ask 
England to pay for crops which have been mortgaged 
to twice their valuation. Of course, I speak of the 
balance of trade and American securities, amounting to 
half a billion dollars, not of individual advances on the 
cotton crop. 

Draw away a few millions more, and America will 
kill the goose with the golden egg. The "Persia," 
coming in with sovereigns, meets the "Asia," going 
out with eagles ! "What new spoke is this in the 
financial wheel ? America may receive another million 
or two, but then she must prepare to pay it back — - 
with tens for every unit. What financier can break 
the golden law of trade ? 

During the last ten years, a thousand millions of 
gold and silver have been added to the bullion of 
the world ! Where is it all ? asks the astonished poli- 
tical economist. A very little reflection would tell him 
that near that sum was distributed by the five nations 
among the Asiatic and African tribes that border on 
the Euxine and the Levant, during the Crimean war 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 269 

— precious little of which has ever found its way 
back. 

Place a piece of gold in the hand of an Asiatic, and it 
acts like an electric shock. He never forgets the sensation. 
Like Isaac the Jew, in Ivanhoe, (which, like the conquest 
of Mexico, was Scott's best work,) 'tis easy to receive 
the sovereigns, but hard for misers to pay them away — 
Asiatics and Africans are but misers, since the time that 
Judas tried to add thirty pieces to his pile, and Esau sold 
his' birth-right for a "hasty plate of soup." 

What is a thousand millions of gold when you come 
to divide it among our little family party ? 'Tis only 
about one dollar to each individual, after all — and who 
is there that cannot raise one hundred cents ? In 
every financial operation, in the Old World, the West 
has been outwitted by the East. (In the New World 
'tis just the reverse. China and India have sold 
Europe their products at high prices, demanding silver 
in exchange ; while the Western States are under ob- 
ligations to the East, for money to build up their 
fancy cities and complete their fancy improvements. 
The East has sent out some three millions of people, 
and furnished them with capital to start them in busi- 
ness in the West ; but the speculation, like shipments 
to the Californian and Australian markets, or like joint 
stock companies nearer home, does not open up a gold 
mine.) 



270 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

England has furnished funds for everyhody to open 
a store, and she must be tired of acting as a special 
partner. The "Arabia's" news will fall upon the Eng- 
lish people like an earthquake. (Dr. Cumming will 
think that the comet has come.) For a long time 
they have been deaf to reason, blind to argument, . in- 
sisting that trade was sound, because the exports were 
continually increasing. 

First a run — then a panic — then a crisis — and the 
Bank of England, a crippled ship in a rough sea, 
will run to Grovernment, and Lord Palmerston will 
do what Lord John Russell did in 1847 : write a let- 
ter authorizing suspension of specie payments (if ne- 
cessary), and possibly an issue of small notes again, 
as they have always done when they were hard up. 

The " reserve of notes" on the 2d Oc- 
tober, 1847, amounted to - - - $ 17,000,000 

The other securities amounted to - 106,000,000 

The discount five and a half per cent. 

The "reserve of notes," 3d October, 1857, 

amounted to 23,000,000 

The other securities amounted to - 109,000,000 

Rate of discount the same. 

On the 30th October, 1847, the reserve 
of notes fell off to - - - - 5,800,000 

And discount went up to 8 per cent. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 271 

At this point, out came the Premier's circular, say- 
ing that the Government would assist the Bank. This 
restored confidence ; so that, at the end of the year, 
the reserve had risen to $38,000,000, and the rate of 
discount dropped to five per cent. 

This may he considered the " Railway mania panic." 
I never pass that magnificent palace on Hyde Park, 
now occupied hy the French Ambassador, without be- 
ing reminded of its once princely owner, — Hudson, 
the " Railway King" — who at one time carried all 
England in his breeches pocket. 



Leaving England to make her way into a safe port, 
if possible, let us follow the tempest to France. Every 
man who has given any attention whatever to the 
subject, will agree with me on at least two points : 
first, that the Credit Mobilier must fail ; second, that 
France has been financially in a bad way for some 
years. 

John Law, the Scotchman, must have laughed in 
his sleeve in 1719, to see how successfully he duped 
the French Monarch and the French people with his 
Mississippi Land Scheme. France was dazzled — poets 
and statesmen, prince and peasant, duchess and mil- 
liner — all bowed before the great financier. Ladies of 



272 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

the highest rank sought to he introduced, and Law 
hecame a king among the pigmies. He went up like 
a rocket and came down like the stick. 

Pereire is the Law of this age. 

The Credit Mobilier is his Mississippi Land Scheme. 
The stock has touched two thousand francs, an ad- 
vance of four hundred per cent. It has fallen to 
seven hundred within a few months. 'Twas the same 
with Law's speculation. 

The Credit Mobilier is the "Popular Delusion" of 
the present century ; a kiting post for the Cabinet ; 
a stool-pigeon for De Morny, and the choice spirits of 
the coup d'etat. 

If Pereire has held on to some of the funds of the 
Austrian and Russian railways, he may have deposits 
sufficient to outlive the Bank of France. But 'tis difficult 
to say who is the chief partner, and for whose benefit 
he is using the money, in the firm of De Morny, 
Pereire & the French Bank. They are all in the 
same boat, and Napoleon is the only man on board 
that understands navigation. Crew and passengers 
watch with anxious eye every movement of the helms- 
man. Never before have such stakes rested upon the 
life of one individual. 

No matter where you find him, that same melan- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 273 

choly smile sleeps upon his features. He never changes ; 
that face is cold as marble. Whether standing beside 
his mother's grave in Italy, or writing his work on 
military tactics ; dining at Lady Blessington's table, or 
smuggling himself into France with the passport of 
a Swedish friend ; taking his frugal meal at a New- 
York restaurant, or landing at Boulogne with one 
spread eagle ; a special constable in England, or a 
prisoner at Ham ; throwing himself single-handed on 
the bayonets of a French regiment at Strasburg, - or 
kissing the Queen of England at Dover, — he never 
changes. 

President of the French Republic, or the Chevalier 
of Mrs. Howard — signing the paper to Marshal St. Ar- 
naud, " Burn Paris if necessary," when riding over 
the bodies of his countrymen in 1851, or dictating 
terms to Lord Palmerston at Osborne resrardinsr the 
Principalities — making love to the beautiful Eugenie, 
or closeted with Alexander at Stuttgard : — Napoleon, 
Emperor of the French, stands at the helm of the 
ship of State — with an iron will upon his hardened 
face, and that same melancholy smile. I can never 
forget it! 

The Bourse is the barometer of the Frenchman's 
politics, and the Bourse to-day is convulsed — (Read 

12* 



274 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Mackay's poem, the " Panic on the Bourse.") They are 
a mercurial people and can make a revolution in an 
hour. Grovernments are weakest when they appear 
most strong. Louis Philippe, the wealthiest, the 
firmest-seated on the throne, the most powerful monarch 
of Europe at night, was an outcast and an exile in 
the morning. Napoleon is made of sterner stuff. He 
will fight, but never run. Napoleon is brave, — Louis 
Philippe was a coward. Napoleon is equal to famine, 
war, pestilence, and inundation ; but take away his 
money and his power has gone for ever. 

He sice to-day Europe rests upon a magazine of 
powder. The Revolution of 1848 has only slumbered. 
European diplomatists will tell you it has never 
died. 

Kossuth, Mazzini, Rollin, and thousands of new-born 
conspirators, still hold their midnight meetings. Dark 
plans are maturing ; dark deeds will be performed. 

All Europe turns to France ! Paris is France. Louis 
Napoleon is Paris — manifest destiny governs Louis 
Napoleon : — a chicken bone at dinner — a pistol ball on 
the Champs Ely sees — a bayonet at the Tuilieries — a 
run-away horse on the Bois de Boulogne (the Duke of 
Orleans was killed by jumping from his carriage), 
may deprive France of its best pilot— and the noble 
ship is wrecked in a sea of blood ! 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 275 

Murat, Robespierre, Danton, and Mirabeau are still 
walking about the streets of Paris — (Lamartine be- 
fore staid the fury of the mob. " The Tri-cotored 
flag," said he, " has been seen in every land — but 
your blood-red banner is only known on the Champs 
de Mars." The Frenchmen listened and rebellion gave 
way to glory.) 

Bonaparte gone— the Count de Morny thinks he can 
form a regency for Napoleon the Fourth ! Count de 
Paris says, " Stop, 'tis my turn now !" Count de Cham- 
bord replies, " Stand back, I've waited for nearly thirty 
years !" Cavaignac, with his ten thousand Republican 
majority, rides over them all at the head of the 
army. 

This time no Bonaparte can stand against him as in 
1848. Changarnier and Lamoriciere are both ambitious 
men ; and swarming in the French ranks there are 
many reckless spirits (who have everything to gain, 
nothing but life to lose, and life is nothing to a 
Frenchman) who remember that military scholar at 
Brienne, who, at twenty-six, was Commander-in-Chief 
of the grand army of Italy ! 

France lives in the sunbeam of Napoleon's fortune. 
Without him she is indeed helpless. No other mind 
can carry her through the dangerous channel of a 
crisis. 



276 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

The first question that the prudent merchant asks 
when making consignments to a foreign land, is, " Have 
you a partner?" " No. " "Then I cannot trust my 
property where only one life is at stake." 

Louis Napoleon has no partner, and all Europe 
quakes with fear ! 

The Emperor has built a palace and filled it with 
works of art. That palace is a fortress ! Look at the 
gates of the Louvre, examine the roof, and you arrive 
at the conclusion that Napoleon, with a hundred thou- 
sand men, could hold it for three months against all 
France. New Paris has been built upon a grand mili- 
tary plan. The paving-stones are removed, glass bottle 
must be taken outside the gates (in 1848 the cavalry 
refused to charge over a road paved with glass), and 
carriages are ordered outside the walls the moment of 
danger. Artillery can be brought in over the Champs 
Elysee — past the Place de la Concorde — down the 
Rue de Rivoli — up the Place de Sebastopol — through 
the Boulevards — down the Rue de la Paix, and the 
Rue Castiglione, to the Tuileries. Cavalry have a 
clear road now. The plan is worthy of a mind like 
Napoleon's. He made his own throne, and will fight 
hard to hold it. But the times are changing. Ten 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



277 



years is about two-thirds the length of a modern French 
Dynasty.* 

When I remember the fate of that beautiful Aus- 
trian, Maria Antoinette, I tremble for the fair Spaniard, 
the Empress Eugenie. 

The French people of 1857 are the same blood- 
thirsty race as the French people of 1789. 

Europe hangs on France. 

Italy, like her southern mountains, is volcanic. Poor 
old land! it is almost dead. Tottering on, a "lean 
and slippered pantaloon,"' " sans teeth, sans eyes, sans 
everything," she stand on the very brink of the grave. 

Napoleon wishes to build a palace for the Pope at 
Jerusalem, but the Pope won't go. He prefers to live 
at Rome. T should like to see the King of Sardinia 
President of Italy ! 

Germany is republican. Her sole ambition is to 



* Have you ever noticed the singular addition of numbers in con- 
nection with the fall of the Dynasties of France ? 



The French Republic ended. 
Dynasty I. : 



Dynastv II.: 
(The fall of Bonaparte.) 



1794 
1 
7 
9 
4 

1815 
1 
8 
1 
5 

1830 



Dynasty III. : 1830 

(Fall of Charles X. ; 2d Revo- 1 

lution.) 8 

3 


Dynasty IV. : 1842 

(Death of Due d'Orleans, heir 1 

of Louis Philippe, real cause 8 

of last Revolution,) 4 

2 

1857 



278 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

have the honor of being the fatherland to all the hus- 
bands and wives required for the reigning families of 
England and of Russia. 

Austria feels strong since the fall of Hungary, but 
is not. She was never weaker. Oscar, King of Swe- 
den, is dying, and with the death of the shiftless 
monarch of Denmark (whose left-hand marriages have 
disgraced his reign), the son of Oscar, grandchild of 
Napoleon's old Marshal, Bernadotte, a boy in years, 
becomes the young monarch of the old Scandinavian 
kingdoms ! The King of Prussia is rapidly approach- 
ing the tomb of his ancestors. Perhaps the heir to 
the throne may retire, and a daughter of Victoria, be- 
come the Queen of Prussia ! 

Turkey has been diseased for several generations. 
Let the "sick man" die. Tha Emperor Nicholas was 
right. England will never own it — yet she believes it. 

What a miserable farce has been enacted at Con- 
stantinople. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe and the Austrian 
Ambassador dictated to the Sultan in relation to the 
Principalities. The elections were made to the satis- 
faction of England and of Austria. Immediately, the 
French, Russian, Prussian, and Sardinian ministers 
struck their flags. The telegraph brought the des- 
patch. Napoleon jumped on board a steamer, with 
Walewski, and three hours later he was at Osborne, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 279 

arguing with the Queen and Palmerston in relation 
to Constantinople. 

" Change your policy," said Bonaparte to Palmers- 
ton, " and quickly, too ; I have no time for superflu- 
ous conversation." 

Off went the despatch — " Give way to France." And 
the ministers at once resumed their diplomatic functions. 

Lord Stratford growls back the defiance : " Recall 
me if you dare. I have the papers ; I have obeyed 
orders ; and if I fall, we must go down together." Lord 
Palmerston knows that he is dealing with a mind like 
his own, and save a Times editorial — "What shall we 
do with a refractory Ambassador ?." there the matter 
rests. 

The union of the Principalities requires a head — 
who will it be ? Prince Napoleon, or a Prince of 
Russia ? In either case, they become a part of the 
Russian Empire.* 

Russia, to-day, is the strongest government in Eu- 
rope. " Russia and America," said the Grand Duke 
Constantine to me, a few weeks since, at Strelna, 
" must always be friends. You have your destiny — 



* The grandson of the Emperor Nicholas, the Prince Leuchtenberg, 
who is also a grandson of the Empress Josephine, is an applicant; so is 
Prince Murat, another offshoot of Napoleon's family. 



280 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

we have ours. Your empire is Westward — ours is to- 
wards the East." (He spoke of the courtesy of the 
American Government in permitting his officers to em- 
bark in the United States frigate " Niagara ; of Cap- 
tain Hudson's kindness to them ; of the salute from 
the United States ship "Susquehanna;" of the honors 
paid him by the United States frigate "Congress;" of 
the American clippers at Cronstadt ; of his wish to 
visit America ; of the hope that commercial relations 
might be extended with the United States ; of his war 
frigate and corvette on the stocks in New- York ; and 
of the Emperor's desire that the good will that has 
existed between America and Russia since the date of 
our national history, shouid continue uninterruptedly 
through all time.) With all the mental energy, without 
the physical frame of his imperial father, the Grand 
Duke Constantine bears the stamp of a ruling mind — an 
accomplished linguist ; a practical soldier as well as 
sailor ; thoroughly educated, under the direction of the 
Emperor Nicholas, of whom he was the favorite son, 
the Grand Admiral of Russia will, some day, have 
his name prominently recorded in the history of Eu- 
rope. He was too practical to be popular in his late 
visit to France ; and I doubt if anything bat an auto- 
graph letter from the Queen of England would have 
induced him to visit Osborne. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 281 

Constantine's active temperament pines for war. — 
Alexander seeks for peace. But the Crimean war has 
created an intense hatred in Russia against England. 

The Grand Duke (and a more gentlemanly man I 
never met with) appointed his senior aid-de-camp, Col. 
Greig, to show me Cronstadt, and gave me an autograph 
letter to the Governor General of Moscow. I was enter- 
tained at the Palace of the Empress Catharine, near 
St. Petersburg, and at the Kremlin, at Moscow, where 
I was surprised to find a full length portrait of Na- 
poleon Bonaparte ! 

But the most interesting place to me (a graduate 
of the counting-house instead of the college) was the 
great annual commercial fair at Nijni-Nov gorod, down 
on the hanks of the Volga, (a thousand miles east of 
Moscow, and two thousand north of Astrakan,) where 
sixty million dollars worth of merchandise changes 
hands in a barter trade, between the European and 
Asiatic merchant, on Russian soil, in six weeks time. 
Three hundred thousand Asiatics had assembled, in 
their garments of many colors, speaking nearly every 
language but those of Europe, (the Russian, to my 
ear, so much resembled the Italian that I soon learned 
sufficient to be my own courier,) to dispose of their 
teas, hemp, iron, feathers, grain, horses, cottons, metals, 
cordage, and almost every conceivable kind of manu- 



282 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

faotured goods. Even in this primitive market the 
expanded credits, and the golden mines of California 
and Australia, have raised the prices of all kinds of 
commodities. The Chinese demand silver now on the 
frontier, and the Armenians had some of the English 
gold that the allies left in Asia Minor during the 
war. 

Russia to-day is the strongest Government in Europe. 
Sixty-two millions of people move as one man. Re- 
volution may sweep through Europe, but Russia — all 
powerful — looks on, and cares not. Religion is the 
fulcrum. Religion is the lever. The Religion of the 
Russian is, " Obey the Emperor !" 

Russia is desirous of extending: her commerce and 
increasing her navy. New-York is building the pioneer 
frigate. That finished, she builds the balance at home 
— ad she requires is a model. Russia will shortly 
have more merchantmen upon the ocean — more men- 
of-war abroad — more trade in foreign lands. 

Russia stands alone. Western Europe waits to see 
Napoleon's next move on the political chess-board. 
Some croakers conscientiously believe that England will 
be checkmated. So long as America is looking over 
her shoulder, she is all right, 
k Napoleon scents the financial crisis in the distance. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



283 



He knows well that a financial revulsion generally 
precedes the political storm. Disordered finances in 
1825 hastened the Revolution of 1830. The railway 
panic of 1847 preceded the rather unexpected arrival 
of Louis Philippe in England ; and the " Arabia's" 
news may distract the diseased minds of European 
cabinets. 

Pereire, in his second financial report to the Em- 
peror, after trying to explain why the public fortunes 
of France had fallen away some two hundred million 
dollars in five months' time, remarks, " that the budget 
of fear almost equals the budget of France /" 

The classic author of " Popular Delusions," compares 
Law's plunge from prosperity to adversity to the sen- 
sations of the first Indian boatman, whose canoe, gliding 
over the waters of Lake Erie, suddenly made the fear- 
ful leap into the waters of Lake Ontario. Before the 
bank suspension the world were singing the song of 
the Canadian Boatman upon a clear blue sea. The 
crisis (never expected) found them in the rapids. The 
jump into the waters below — the death-straggle of 
thousands, and the escape of a few under the " Sus- 
pension" Bridge to the lake beyond — is still an unopened 
book in financial history. The Credit Mobilier is the 
canoe. Napoleon is the boatman. 



284 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Pereire, after all, is only a passenger from Roths- 
child's steamship, who, like the Irishman's ancestor, (at 
the time that Noah was the owner of the entire domes- 
tic and foreign tonnage in the world,) thought " he 
had a boat of his own ! " 

Napoleon the mocern, mightiest by far, 



Who, born no king, made monarchs draw his car : 
Whose game was empire — whose dominion, thrones ! 
Whose table, earth — whose dice were human bones ! 



Byron describes the Uncle in the "Age of Bronze." 
Who will describe the Nephew in the "Age of Plas- 
ter"? 

The first two lines " are cast in pleasant places." 
Only one act has been played. 

Mark the meeting of Crowned Heads in central Eu- 
rope. 

England was not invited, and she was too proud to 
buy a ticket. Suspicious of what may be passing, 
she has her ear at the key-hole. Yet the meet- 
ing is all a mystery to her. She don't understand 
French ! 

What a strange coincidence ? Napoleon the Third 
met, on the 27th of last September, 1857, Alexander the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



285 



Second, at Stuttgard — - just forty-nine years, to a day 
and hour, since Napoleon the First met Alexander 
the First, at Erfurt. 

The old Emperors were surrounded by thirty Ger- 
man Kings and other Potentates. 

The new Emperors were alone ! 

On the 12th October, 1808, a secret treaty was 
signed between the old Emperors, guaranteeing Finland 
to Russia, and making the Principalities integral parts 
of the Russian Empire. 

Who will explain to us what has transpired between 
the new Emperors ? Cabinets are mute ; statesmen 
are dumb ; the journals of the world are silent — no 
reporters being admitted, of course I had the door 
shut in my face, But any one can imagine what 
passed, 

There can be no harm in reporting an imaginary 
conversation. James has done it many a time with 
only a "single horseman" for an audience. 

Brevity is popular. Telegrams were invented by 
William Shakespere. 

Griles describes his Shakesperian friend, who printed 
some of the Commandments in large letters, over the 
several editions of the great bard, in this wise — 



286 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREEf. 

To Actors. 

" Thou shalt do no murder" 

To Authors. 

" Thou shalt not steal" 

To Critics. 
" Thou shalt not hear false witness. 

If I break any of these Commandments, I hope to 
be forgiven. 

The Bonaparte meets the Romanoff ; the Hapsburg 
begs admission ; the Prussian King expects the same 
distinguished regard. (But the door is closed to both 
in this act. Russia likes not Austria ; Russia picked 
Austria out of the gutter, when she bought Greorgey 
to sell the Hungarian army. Austria, ungrateful, forgot 
the circumstance during the late war.) 

"Allons! mon cousin !— -now to business," said Alex- 
ander. 

"Oh ! bother business ! Let me tell you what a 
jolly time we had at Osborne," said Bonaparte, 

I disagree with Punch. The Russian Emperor gave 
way to the French. 

Napoleon was in this case the first spokesman, al* 



young America in wall-street. 287 

though generally a listener. " Russia, take Constan- 
tinople ! It belongs to you as naturally as Cuba does to 
the Americans ! Let Austria have "Wallachia and Molda- 
via. Let Prussia settle that Schleswig-Holstein succes- 
sion to suit -herself. And as France has some one 
hundred and fifty thousand soldiers in Algeria, she 
may as well employ the army in 'annexing' Egypt!" 

" But what of England?" said Alexander, speaking 
for the first time. 

" England," replied Napoleon, " experienced an at- 
tack of apoplexy in the Crimea ! The second came 
with the Indian revolution ! The third is paralysis by 
destroying the power of the * money king ! ' " 

" That is all very beautiful in theory," said Alex- 
ander, "but may prove bad in practice. You should 
remember that England has always been the strongest 
when she appeared the weakest. 

" The American war did not break her. The Spanish 
campaign only prevented her army from rusting ! 

" Your uncle's terrible struggle only placed a laurel 
round her brow, when she sent the Emperor, Parrha- 
sius like, to die upon a rock in the Southern Ocean." 

(Louis Napoleon turned as white as a sheet with 
rage; but remembering his destiny, that he is to die 
the sack of London, recovers his color, and resumes 
the conversation.) 



288 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

" The war of 1812 was comparatively nothing. Her 
wealth increased with her debt. John Bull understands 
kiting better than you and I, Louis." 

" Yes ? " (interrogatively) replied Napoleon. " But forty 
years of peace found England unprepared for the Cri- 
mean war. France, as you are aware, occupied the 
entire coupe. England took a back seat in the dili- 
gence ; and just as she arrived, peace was declared. 
Speaking of her great wealth, have you ever read 
Sydney Smith's Apostrophe to Taxes?" 

"True," said the Emperor of Russia; " but you can- 
not have forgotten the splendid army that England raised 
when yours and ours were pretty well used up. I 
merely mention these things," continued Alexander, "to 
show you that England is all-powerful, when the world 
thinks her ruined." 

"You make a strong argument for your old friend ; 
but you should bear in mind," said the Emperor of 
the French, "that the times are changing! Eng- 
land, before she has recovered the prestige lost in the 
Black Sea, finds her Eastern possessions dissolving 
away. She has sent her active army of forty thousand 
men to India. Her colony at the Cape any time may 
be involved in another Kaffir War. Australia is loyal so 
long as British regiments keep the miners in check. 
Remember that forty soldiers were shot from the rebel 
stockade on the ' Eureka' at Ballarat in 1854. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 289 

" The Europeans at Singapore, with a population of 
eighty thousand Chinese and Malays, have only a Sepoy 
regiment to protect it. China laughs at the ' pop-gun' 
attempt of Palmerston to break the Tartar's rule. 
Mauritius does not feel secure since Canning has taken 
away the British regiment. The Canadian troops (in 
several instances) showed disaffection at the very rumor 
of being sent to India. 

" You know as well as I," continued Napoleon, 
" that this Indian question is the most serious embar- 
rassment England has ever experienced. Notwithstand- 
ing the horrible atrocities at Cawnpore and Meerut, 
constantly kept before the people by the English 
press, the lower and middling classes consider it no 
affair of theirs. They say, with some degree of 
reason, that the Honorable East India Company has 
always been in the hands of a favored few. The 
English people have had no share in the spoils, but 
the glory of the robbery. I doubt if ten thousand vol- 
unteers can be raised in England; while a 'hundred 
thousand Americans more than were required came 
forward for the Mexican war, and in that case there 
were no women to be rescued, no babes to be taken 
from off the Sepoy's sabre. You, too, must have no- 
ticed this apathy. When I contemplate the unheard-of 
outrages committed upon helpless mothers and chil- 

13 



290 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



dren — I would volunteer myself, were I not an Em- 
peror. 

" The fact is, the times are changing. For several 
years England has been so kind as to be governed by 
my advice. I think I can rule her still. The very 
rumor of my Uncle's invasion in 1797 caused her Na- 
tional Bank to suspend for twenty-two years. His 
fleet met in the West Indies — a storm disorganized 
his plans. Then it was the i age of canvas' — now 
'tis the ' a^e of steam.' 

" He had only sailing ships — I have steamers ; I can 
land a hnndred thousand men on England's shores in 
ten hours time, and carry out the Emperor's plan of 
appealing to the people against the aristocracy. Have 
you not noticed the rumbling sound of discontent in 
Ireland? You feel proud of Cronstadt. You should 
see Cherbourg. - Your brother Constantine made a few 
notes when there." 

"Certainly," said Alexander, laughing; "you this 
time have the best of the argument, but still I can- 
not forget the history of England. My father, the 
Emperor Nicholas, always respected her greatness, and 
my uncle Alexander considered it one of the proudest 
moments of his life when he accompanied Wellington 
to Paris after the Battle of Waterloo." 

" If you mention Waterloo again," interrupted Na- 



YOUNG- AMERICA IN WALL- STRESS. 29l 

poleon, impatiently, "I shall have, in all good nature* 
to remind you of Moscow. There is much force in 
what you say, hut the fact is, England's strength 
has gone with her money. I got some of it — Amer- 
ica a good deal of it ; hut you, Alexander, were too 
late with your railways." 

" They will be built* nevertheless," responded the 
Emperor of Russia; "Russia never attempts anything 
she does not accomplish ; (your uncle once made the 
same reply to the President of the French Assembly, 
When asked if he could defend Paris against the 
mob)." 

(Napoleon shudders at the word mob, and begs the 
Emperor to confine his remarks to England.) 

" England," continued Alexander, " may lose to-day } 
but she will gain to-morrow. About the age which 
gave birth to three great minds in different lands 
(your uncle, Wellington, and Mehemet-Ali), England 
discovered a power that is still in its infancy. 

" When the Chathamtonian letters of Junius were be* 
ing penned — a short time after Lord Clive had gained 
a colony in the East to compensate for one that 
Lord Cornwallis was about to lose in the West — ■ 
Watts with his steam and Arkwright with his cotton- 
gin were working out a herculean fortune for the 
British nation. You may be right, but I can't help 



mi 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 



thinking that England has something yet in the Na* 
tional Treasury. 

" But as you say, my cousin, the times are chang* 
In a. Who could have imagined such an interview as 
this ? What would my father or your uncle have 
said ? Who could have supposed for a moment that 
Protestant England would have united with Cath- 
olic France, to protect Mahommedan Turkey against 
the Grreek Church of Russia? Nothing since the Cru- 
sades under Plantagenet against Jerusalem has appeared 
so absurd. 'Twas a quarrel about the 'holy places 5 
in each case, and so far as England was concerned, 
the result in each case was about the same — nothing ! " 

" I have listened most attentively," replied Napoleon, 
" to what you say— all of which would meet my views, 
did I not believe that the times are changing. 

" The first conquest of Mexico under Cortez was 
far different from the second conquest of Mexico under 
Scott. The Spaniard encountered an effeminate race, liv- 
ing a life of luxury about the halls of the Monte- 
zumas. The Americans met drilled soldiers. 

" The first conquest of India under Clive is far 
different from the second conquest of India under Canning 
— as different as that age compared to this. 

" Here the analogy between Mexico and Hindostan 
ends — for in the one case Scott had an enthusiastic 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



293 



nation — every man of which was a soldier — to cheer 
him on — while Canning thus far has received hut forty 
thousand men. Mexico was near the United States : 
India is far from England. Mexico is a very little 
place : India is a very large one. And if England loses 
India, all the money which she has spent there goes 
with it. 

" England never looks ahead — ' sufficient for the day,' 
&c. Bacon said that knowledge was the result of 
experience. But "Walpole told Chatham there was such 
a thing as being ignorant in spite of experience." 

" I must admit there's method in your reasoning," 
responded the Emperor of Russia. " My father never 
for a moment expected that England would so foolish- 
ly break their long friendship. It was an oft-repeated 
remark of his, that when a man had been running at 
the top of his speed, he must slacken his pace or fall. 
"When prices are inflated beyond a prudent margin, 
they naturally must depreciate. So when a nation has 
reached the highest pinnacle of fame, it commences to 
decay. Venice, Portugal, Spain, and Holland are in- 
stances of nations dying out the moment they com- 
mence to lose that which made them great — their com- 
merce. 

" When a man is at the point of death he must 
get better or die. Macaulay's singular prophecy of the 



294 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

New Zealand traveler sketching the ruins of St. Paul's 
from London Bridge, is in my mind." 

" I agree with you, these are natural laws ; and 
while I endorse many of your opinions, I require 
more reflection on the rest. But at any rate, on the 
chief points our sentiments are mutual." 

" One word," said the Emperor of the French, for 
the first time Looking Alexander steadily in the face — 
" one word before we part." 

"What do you think of America?" 

" Simply," replied Alexander, in a quiet and de- 
cided way, "that you and I, to say the least, had 
better leave America to attend to her own affairs." 

The Emperors closed the conference. The interview 
was satisfactory. The two monarchs only argued 
against each other to agree the better at the conclu- 
sion. Both leave the palace with a secret resolve to 
cripple the power of England forever. 



Now comes the issue. America must stand forth and 
proclaim her sentiments. She must act, not talk. 

THE TIMES ARE CHANGING. 

Americans must spring to the rescue of the Saxon 
power. 

England has done more for religious freedom and 
civil liberty than all the world beside. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 295 

I speak with the book, and know well what I say. 
America has followed England abroad and copied her 
at home. Englishmen should praise rather than cen- 
sure our nationality ; for where is there a people so 
wrapt up in their national glory as the English. 

A little more reflection- would convince an English- 
man that America must ever be the friend of Eng- 
land. Natural ties are stronger than artificial alliances. 
Americans are worthy of better treatment, of more re- 
spect, of broader sentiments, than Englishmen are dis- 
posed to give them. They insist upon judging us by 
the standard of the "almighty dollar." We have been 
treated badly by England. 

The whole story can be written on a single page. 

We commenced our career a shivering band of pil- 
grims, at Plymouth 

Our house was built upon a rock. 

We worked — we toiled — we spun. (rod and the 
right went up with our morning and evening prayer. 
By honesty and industry we built up a progressive 
colony. 

A free church, a clear conscience, and just laws? 
were the daily watch-words of the banished pioneers. 
Amidst storm and tempest — the bear and the Indian 
— we increased in numbers and in wealth, and worked 



296 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

hard for that old mother land whose arbitrary laws 
had driven us from her shores. 

We paid the taxes generation after generation. "We 
paid the taxes — for over a century and a-half we 
paid them — and fought the battles of England. Years 
passed on. George the Third wanted more money — 
we paid it. More still — we paid that also. Year after 
year we paid away our hard-earned gains without com- 
plaint. Then tyrannical governors came among us. The 
Pilgrim Band had become the germ of a great na- 
tion. More taxes were wanted for a continental war. 
Out came the Stamp Act — the Boston Port Bill : — and 
overboard went the tea- — up went the flag— and 
then came Declaration of Independence — battles — vic- 
tory ! 

" There is Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker 
Hill," said Webster to Hayne, "and there they will 
remain forever, to prove to the civilized world the 
justness of our cause." 

England admits that she was wrong, that America 
was right. 

" Onward and upward, straight on," we continued our 
destiny. Washington lived and died, bequeathing the 
purest name in history to a grateful nation. Adams> 
Madison, Jefferson, followed, when, waging war with 
Bonaparte, England again insulted us. Our sailors 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 297 

were ourselves ; touch them, you arouse us. The 
American citizen, on land or on the ocean, must and 
will be respected. Again we were victorious. 

England admits that she was wrong, that America 
was right. 

Then came an age of peace. England sneers at our 
progress one day, and the next pats us on the shoul- 
der, calling us a saucy little boy. English writers visit 
our land, but only return to exaggerate our faults and 
forget our virtues. 

"Who reads an American book?" said Sydney 
Smith* 



* " Confining ourselves to our own country, and to the period that 
has elapsed since they had an independent existence, we would ask, 
where are their Foxes, their Burkes, their Sheridans, their Windhams, 
their Homers, their Wilberforces ? — Where their Arkwrights, their Watts, 
their Davys 1 — their Robertsons, Blairs, Smiths, Stewarts, Paleys, and 
Malthuses ? — their Porsons, Parrs, Burneys, or Bloomfields ? — their Scotts 
Bogerses, Campbells, Byrons, Moores, or Crabbes ? — their Siddonses, 
Kembles, Keans, or O'Neils ? — their Wilkies, Lawrences, Chantrys ? — or 
their parallels to the hundred other names that have spread themselves 
over the world from our little island in the course of the last thirty 
years, and blest or delighted mankind by their works, inventions, or 
examples ? In so far as we know, there is no such parallel to be 
produced from the whole annals of this self- adulating race. 

" In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book ? 
or goes to an American play? or looks at an American picture or 
statue? What does the world yet owe to American physicians or sur- 

13* 



298 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Marryat came to the United States in the midst of 
the panic of 1837, to sneer at everything he saw. 

" Who fattens on the curse of slavery? 5 ' said 
Dickens ; and then there was a distinguished lady 
writer came Trollop-ing through the land. 

The Ashhurton treaty was not a generation old when 
it was broken, but not by us. Our laws were infringed. 
Enlistment of soldiers in America for the Crimean war 
would have offended Russia, with whom we have never 
had an ill-tempered diplomatic note. We protested, but 
without effect. Back went the British minister. Eng- 
land sent regiments to Canada, and a war-fleet to the 
Bermudas. Clarendon stormed ; Marcy responded, with 
dignity and with eloquence. The American minister 
unpacked his trunks, and still remains in England. 

England still admits that we were right — that she 
was wrong. 

England should not forget, when shuddering over the 
atrocity of the Sepoys, that she herself, in days gone 

geons ? What new substances have their chemists discovered ? or what 
old ones have they analyzed ? What new constellations have been dis- 
covered by the telescopes of Americans? What have they done in the 
mathematics ? Who drinks out of American glasses ? or eats from 
American plates ? or wears American coats or gowns ? or sleeps in 
American blankets ? Finally, under which of the old tyrannical gov- 
ernments of Europe is every sixth man a slave, whom his fellow-crea- 
tures may buy and sell and torture?" 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 299 

by, has offered rewards to the North American savage 
for the " scalps of Americans wherever they may be 
found." Remember Chatham's eloquent denunciation. 

I have merely run my eye along our national his- 
tory to show that America has not been well treated 
by England. What are Americans, after all, but Eng- 
lishmen left to themselves? 

With all this bitter remembrance, we are willing to 
forget and forgive. We are fond of the old land yet 
— with all her faults we love her still. 

England will shortly need our help. The times are 
changing. Our moral sympathy alone may prevent the 
encroachment of Europe. India hangs by a thread — 
America can secure the Saxon flag there for another 
hundred years. Americans are Americans at home — 
but they are Saxons abroad. 

Let England's noble Queen come over to America, 
and she shall have a welcome such as no historian 
has ever recorded. A sovereign people know how to 
welcome a sovereign Queen. 

We never liked the Georges. Landor condenses 

Thackeray's lectures into a thimble. 

" George the Third was reckoned vile; 
Viler, George the Second. 
And what mortal erer heard 

Any good of George the Third ? 
When from earth the Fourth ascended, 
God be praised, the Georges ended !" 



300 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

"We never liked the G-eorges ; but there is not an 
American in the land that does not respect Victoria, 
— the daughter, the wife, the mother, and the Queen— 
the noblest woman in our Father-land ! 

Let the Queen of England visit America ! 'Twill 
heal an age of irritation ; and then one hundred thou- 
sand able-bodied soldiers will land in India and in 
China, to introduce, with cannon, the locomotive, the 
steamboat, and all the implements of the Saxon's power, 
to the Asiatic race. 

THE TIMES ARE CHANGFNG. 



AN AMERICAN ARTICLE. 

European Politics— The Queen's Visit to America— Indian Brutalities- 
No place like Home— Bottom out of the Financial Churn— Panic 
of 1857 eclipses every other, in the aggregate, for three centuries — 
Substitute "Western Land" for "South Sea" Bubble— Panic of 
1814 — National Bank under Washington, and National Bank under 
Madison — Jackson's Veto — U. S. Bank of Pennsylvania— Panic of 
; 37 compared with Crisis of '57 — Meeting of Banking Delegates — 
Biddle's struggles to sustain the Bank — Wall street Dodges — 
Bankrupt Act of 1841 and '42— Tariff of 1^842 and '46— Failures- 
Bankrupt Act for honest men recommended — the times are chang- 
ing — How a Bank is got up — Stock Exchange — Bulls break Bears 
then Bears break Bulls — State Debts — Depreciation in Property — 
Amasa Walker off the Track — Crops Overestimated — What Inter- 
ests pay? — When will the Banks resume? — Economy — Factory Op- 
eratives — Importations of Grain into England — Everett at Buffalo — 
Standing Army of America one million of men — Filibustering — 
Cuba ; Let the Government buy it, and keep the people honest — 
A National Bank Discussed — Jackson versus Biddle — Schuylerisms — 
Washington's National Bank — Madison's — Biddle's — Reason why 
Jackson removed the Deposits — National Bank preferable to pres- 
ent system — Buy Cuba — Build the Pacific Railroad — These two 
sums furnish basis for a National Bank — Government must take 
care of the People — Free Trade — California — Brigham Young — 
Congress of Merchants, &c. — Practical men wanted— Hon. Nathan 



302 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Appleton — Chatham's reply to Walpole — Wholesome Reforms — 
England's Interference with American Slavery — Campbell's Defi- 
ance—George Hunt's Retort — Steam and Credit — Slaves better free 
than Freemen — England's Debt — Blacks more thought of than 
Whites — Stop the Cotton, and Revolution in England anticipated — 
Louis Napoleon as Policeman and as Emperor — Reed, the Poet — 
N. P. Morris — Vigilance Committee. 



"HOME AGAIN! 55 
BUBBLES,— BANKS, — BLACKS- 



Having assisted the Emperors of France and Russia 
in settling the " disputed points " in European poli- 
tics, invited the Queen of England, in the name of 
the American people, to visit the United States, and 
recommended the President to send one hundred thou- 
sand of the "unemployed" (for a consideration) to 
India, to " assist " the Sepoys in introducing railways, 
telegraphs, Christian inventions and Christian laws, 
into Hindostan ; and to impress upon the mind of the 
Mahommedan and the Hindoo, that Saxon children are 
not animals of prey, to be bayoneted and butchered 
like goats in a Hindoo temple, and that Saxon women 
are not to be dishonored by the most terrible crime 
that fiends can perpetrate, and then, before life is ex- 
tinct, cut into a hundred pieces, and thrown into a 
well, as was the case at Cawj:pore (the band of Nena 
Sahib striking up the music of that beautiful song, 
"Cheer, boys, cheer!") — having, I say, gone so far 
abroad, and taken a general glance at passing events 



804 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

in Europe and in Asia, through the magnetic attrac- 
tion of home, I find myself once more discussing the 
state of affairs in my native land. 

"With all due regard for the monuments of the Old 
World, there's nothing that makes my heart jump 
so high with delight, after returning from those time- 
worn turrets, and being tossed about on a rough At- 
lantic sea for some twelve days, as to see again the 
great monuments of America, the light-houses along 
the shore, which at some future day will be the 
beacons to guide the commerce of the Old World into 
the harbors of the New. 

Just at this particular time, however, I can imag- 
ine the surprise that settles over the sunburnt faces 
of Eastern travelers, who, returning from foreign lands, 
learn for the first time, when the pilot makes the 
intelligence known, that, notwithstanding the bottom 
has dropped out of the financial churn, the commer- 
cial dairymen are churning away as blindly as ever, 
although, every time the dasher goes down it hits 
the cat and kittens, who are lapping up the skim- 
milk upon the floor ! 

The sooner the people of the United States make 
up their minds that the financial simoom of 1857 
eclipses every other crisis since the time that Colum- 
bus was under obligations to a North American sav- 
age for a raccoon steak, the better, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 305 

^You may take all the statistics of all the panics 
for the last three centuries, add them up, and then 
multiply by two, and you will not make a sum equal 
to the general depreciation on property throughout the 
world in the years 1857 and 1858. This may appear 
an exaggeration, but a little reflection will prove the 
truth of the assertion. 

The panics that followed Columbus — the panics that 
persecuted the Pilgrims (the tulip mania of Holland 
exploded just sixteen years after Miles Standish asked 
the first Indian to take a drink) — the panics that con- 
vulsed the old world a century later, born and nursed 
in the South Sea House, and the Rue de Quincam- 
poix — the panics of 1814, '25, '37, and '47, all these 
panics thrown into the " Yanderbilt" steamer would 
not be sufficient to make her crank ; while the clipper 
crisis of 1857 will probably be the means of sinking 
the "Great Eastern!" 

"Will some one be so kind as to look up the figures, 
and show in what respect my argument is weak ? 

In 1814 all the Banks of the country failed except 
those of New England (their paper was worth twenty 
per cent, above that of the Federal Government ; this 
time I should judge its value was considerably more 
than that below it). About the time that the Iron 
Duke prayed "that night or Blucher would come to 



306 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

his assistance," and the " Little Corporal" was straining 
his eyes through a telescope for Grrouche, on the Field 
of Waterloo, the United States found it somewhat 
difficult to get a discount, and thousands were made 
bankrupt. 

The war closed ; National Bank number two was 
established ; Madison signed the charter, April 10th, 
1816. Its capital was thirty-five million dollars. 

The charter was for twenty years. 

"National Bank number one had a capital of ten 
millions. The charter was signed by Washington for 
twenty years. About the time that it expired, another 
Bank was projected, but Clinton's casting vote de- 
feated the bill. The next Congress succeeded in es- 
tablishing the Bank which has made Biddle famous. 

The banks having failed, this great national insti- 
tution was a blessing to the country. 

The other banks struggled hard to keep their heads 
above water. In February, 1816, the Union Bank 
tried to resume specie payment ; the Virginia Banks 
copied her example. 

In June, 1817, the New- York Legislature passed a 
bill compelling the suspended banks to pay twelve per 
cent, interest on their notes if they did not resume. 
(Why are the bill holders not waking up to this 
forcing process ?) Towards the end of the year gold 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 307 

poured in, but the expansion and sudden contraction 
of the National Bank broke nearly all the merchants. 

Paper expansion occasioned the panic. 

The National Bank worked much better than the 
others. I believe the panic of 1825 would have been 
worse without it. On the 10th of July, 1832, " Old 
Hickory" vetoed the U. S. Bank bill, and the follow- 
ing October removed the deposits, amounting in the 
several banks to forty million dollars. That year the 
thirty per cent, (sliding scale) tariff went into effect. 

To prevent a crisis arising from the removal of the 
specie, Biddle commenced discounting. The extent of 
the expansion can be seen by the fact that the bank 
issues increased from $360,000,000 in 1835, to $525,- 
000,000 before 1837. Of course this expansion drove 
the specie out of the country to pay the foreign cre- 
ditors, and buy the foreign grain, and set everybody 
to speculating in " under water" lands, and all kinds 
of stocks. 'Tis always so. 

To arrest these insane land speculations, General 
Jackson issued the Treasury Circular 11th July, 1836, 
providing that all receipts for the sale of public lands 
must be made in gold and silver. It was afterwards 
modified, permitting the receipt of the bills of specie- 
paying Banks. During the balance of the year, the 
rumbling of the distant thunder announced the ap- 
proaching storm. 



308 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Josephs commenced the ball in March. Their lia- 
bilities were some $7,000,000 ; their assets exceeded this 
sum about a million. About the same amounts were 
shown by the Ohio Life and Trust Company, and I 
think they will pay about the same dividend ! 

Morgan, receiver for the country Banks, came down 
next. 

'Twas the same this time with Thompson. The 
failures from October, '36, to April, '37, were some 
$70,000,000. 

The failures from August to November, 1857, will 
amount to some $200,000,000. 

Two hundred houses stopped in Boston in six weeks. 
Specie ranged from ten to fourteen per cent, premi- 
um, when out came another Treasury Circular, au- 
thorizing Government to receive in payment, on all 
occasions, the bills of specie-paying Banks. The ab- 
surdity of this measure will be observed by remem- 
bering that all the Banks had failed — as is the case 
to-day, 

Then the New- York Banks came down on the 10th 
of May. The Boston and New England Banks fol- 
lowed. This year I remark the same analogy. The 
next day the Baltimore and Philadelphia Banks broke- 
This time they preceded New- York. 

The merchants' circular to Government, prepared 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 30U 

by the 3d of May Committee, spoke of the great 
depreciation of property, some thirty to forty per cent., 
and the terrible effect of the hard times upon the rich 
as well as the poor. 

Twenty thousand men were out of employment. 
There are twice that now, and the hard times have 
hardly commenced. 

Twelve hundred thousand dollars in specie were sent 
abroad in August, 1837, and the Government got out 
their Treasury notes. About the same amount came 
this way in the u Persia" in October, 1857. 

On the 27th of November, 1837, one hundred and 
thirty-five banking delegates, representing eighteen 
States, met to discuss the necessity of resuming specie 
payment. They were in session four days, and ad- 
journed till April, having accomplished nothing but 
drinking up a good quantity of bad liquor, and eating 
everything that came in their way, (for the benefit of 
their shareholders.) Have there been any similar meet* 
ings this year? 

On the 16th April, 1838, they met again, and ad- 
vised all to resume on the first Monday of January, 
1839. The only result of this second meeting was. 
the discussing of a few more good dinners. The ad- 
vice was a dead letter. The banks tried to resume, 
and failed. 



010 Young aMerica in wall-street. 

The United States Bank of Pennsylvania suspended 
on the 9th of September, 1839. This bank, it will be 
remembered, was raised upon the worn-out fabric of the 
old National Bank, vetoed by Jackson in 1832, and. ex- 
pired by limitation in 1836 4 

The National Bank never failed to pay its obliga* 
tions. The bank that failed bore the same name — was 
managed by the same President, but existed under a 
charter from the State of Pennsylvania. Yet foreign- 
ers cannot separate the two institutions* At this time, 
everybody looked to Biddle. Biddle struggled hard. His 
three and twelve months post notes did not work, and 
'twas as absurd for him to try and stem the tide by 
buying up the cotton crop, as for Mrs. Partington to 
mop away the sea. He tried to resume, and did, on 
the 15th of January ; but down he came again, in 
February (1841). He fought hard, but the odds were 
against him. Six millions of specie were paid away 
in a few days, and all the Wall Street dodges of hav* 
ing expressmen ride up, and porters carrying in bags 
of cents, &c, were resorted to, without avail. Of 
course, this knocked all the other banks off the roost 
except the New- York and New- England institutions. 

The Sub- Treasury Law was repealed on the 9th of 
August, 1841, and, on the 19th of the same month, 
Congress passed a uniform Bankruptcy Act, to go into 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALI>STREET. 311 

operation on the 1st February, 1842, which released 
between thirty-five and forty thousand bankrupts, and 
cleared off about five hundred million dollars indebt- 
edness. You never saw a more disgusted set of men 
than the one million of creditors when they received 
their dividends. 

Kentucky was the only State that made any show 
at all. To her everlasting credit, she paid eighty cents 
on the dollar. 

Maryland paid ten ; Illinois six-and-a-quarter ; Ten- 
nessee four-and-a-half ; Massachusetts four ; New-Jersey 
one ; — while Michigan, Iowa, Connecticut, Maine, Penn- 
sylvania, Alabama, Virginia, and Washington City, paid 
so much less than one per cent, on the dollar, it is 
not worth mentioning. 

The " Compromise Tariff " expired in 1842, and the 
''Protective Tariff" run on to 1846. All the inter- 
mediate panics were only the breaking out of the old 
disease — as Matthews would say, "it was the same 
drunk ! " 

First of December, 1846, this tariff went into opera- 
tion, and expired June 30th, 1857, when we put in the 
first free trade wedge. 
The total Imports into the country dur- 
ing the ten years and seven months, 
amounted to .... $2,504,168,646 



812 young America in wall-street* 

Averaging in round numbers, per annum, $240,000,000 
Exports, same time, amount to . 2,429,157,209 
Averaging, say, . 230,000,000 
The tonnage employed in foreign com- 
merce was 1,800,000, earning some 225,000,000 

I have gone somewhat into details to show how ab- 
surd it is to expect for a moment better times for 
months and months. 

If the liabilities arising out of that panic amounted 
to $500,000,000, will not the liabilities extending over 
the same length of time, run up to $2,000,000,000? 

The total value of real and personal 

property in the United States, January 

1st, 1853, amounted to . . $10,855,636,800 
Even twenty -five per cent, depreciation 

would give the pretty sum of . 2,700,000,000 

The country did not get a fair start until 1842, 
What reason have we to expect it to square up and 
go on again, as many argue, in a few months' time ? 
I should like to hear their side of the argument. As- 
sertions are nothing, without facts. 

Bankrupt Acts have generally been made for thieves 
and scamps. I would suggest now that Congress pass 
an act for all the States for honest men, and it should 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 313 

be prepared so that lawyers could not drive a Broad- 
way omnibus through it. as they can through a New- 
York State Legislative Act. A broad, honest, Congres- 
sional Bankrupt Law will have to be framed, before 
the country can make any head- way toward recovery. 
It is the only " poor man's plaster " that will be in 
demand. 

There are three things that will shortly be fashion- 
able in this country — failures, economy, and, I trust, 
honesty. 

THE TIMES ARE CHANGING. 

Heretofore those who were the most extravagant, 
and had the largest liabilities, were enabled to obtain 
the greatest facilities from the moneyed interest. A 
few choice spirits generally club together, get up a 
bank, and adopt as a motto, when discounts are dis- 
cussed, " after number one, the million." And at the 
present time many say we must save ourselves, if 
everybody else go to pieces. How natural ? 

Now is the time to do unto others (as nearly as 
possible) as you would have others do unto you. 
My advice is, if a creditor smite the debtor on the 
right cheek, give him a chance at the other. But should 
the miscreant strike him there also — as Scripture don't 
provide for that alternative — I should decidedly pound 
him, and give no quarter. 

14 



314 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

In other words, we require a Bankrupt Act to pro- 
tect honest debtors and bona fide creditors. The Acts 
of 1800 and 1841 can be improved upon, and by tak- 
ing a leaf or two from the French and English sys- 
tems, a sound bill can be framed ; and the debtor and 
the creditor (there is little difference this time be- 
tween the position of the one or the other) can make 
a new start in life. 

I hope, for a while at least, we shall see no more 
of that high pressure system at the broker's board. 
For several years the stock exchange has been a dis- 
grace to this country. The bulls get together and 
break the bears, and then the bears club around and 
break the bulls. "Wesley gets Little's i 6 nob in 
chancery," and of course Little can't sleep till he has 
returned the compliment. 

The Bankrupt Law will wipe out an immense amount 
of corporation rottenness and individual liability. 
The total debt of the thirty-one States in 

1851, was, . ... $201,541,624 

While the assessed value of property was $5,983,149,407 

Every dollar of this debt will be paid. 

Everything else may depreciate, and insolvency be 
general, but I am sure the American people would 
bear any amount of just taxation before they will ever 
permit another State to repudiate. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STftEET. 313 

In 1837, the liabilities equaled about the amount 
of the paper money afloat. 

Now, the liabilities, most likely, will treble the ex* 
pansion. While I endorse many of the able comments 
of Mr. Amasa Walker, on the currency, I cannot 
asree with him " that the effects of this crisis will 
be far less lasting than that of 1837, or that a healthy 
condition of trade will be brought about in a few 
mouths." 

Almost every financial writer plays upon the same 
"harp of a thousand strings." They believe the 
country sound. They talk of recuperative power, 
They point to the improvements in the country. In 
what does the soundness consist ? In prices of every- 
thing being inflated to a hundred per cent, above their 
real value ? I am told that the rent-roll in New- 
York equals the bank capital. Have the landlords 
made up their minds to a reduction of one half? 
Have the stockholders in the railways come to the con- 
clusion that one half the roads will better manage the 
entire business of the country than all do now ? That 
the falling off in importations and immigration will 
keep the shipping property poor for many a month ? 
That land that does not grow grain sufficient to feed 
a horse, can have but little real value ? 

What are our great agricultural resources ? How 



816 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

much is added to the wealth of the land by grow- 
ing grain that we eat, and where is the value after 
it goes into our mouths? 

What we export to Europe I have previously shown 
is a bagatelle. So, after we have obtained what we 
shall eat and what we shall drink, and wherewithal 
we shall be clothed, the raising of which has given 
employment to labor, we want a foreign market for 
the surplus. When labor ceases to be productive, the 
produce consumed is wasted. The stomach is full, but 
the pocket is empty. Therefore, when hundreds of 
thousands of laborers are thrown out of employment, 
the country loses millions of dollars. What interest 
pays to-day ? Railways ? By no means. Railways are 
mortgaged labor, badly managed by agents general, for 
their own benefit. And even bondholders are governed 
by majorities. Railways have never paid as well as 
bank stock, and bank stock is gradually sinking out 
of sight. 

How many corporations and individuals are hanging 
on by their eye-lids in the vain hope that there is " a 
good time coming " ? 

Are factories paying ? I should think not. When, 
as Dr. Cheever says, ten mills donH make one cent, 
there is something radically wrong ! 

A reduction of prices cripples merchants, the mer- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 317 

chants cripple the banks, the New World cripples the 
Old: hence, you will see nothing but "crutches" and 
"cripples" for a long time yet. 

Bank notes secured by State stocks may be saved, 
but depositors may go a begging. Look at the dis- 
graceful statement of the Bowery Bank. Were the 
directors "Bowery boys" or "Bowery men"? Such 
disclosures will tend to make Bank and State as un- 
popular as Church and State. 

When will our banks resume? Echo answers, when? 
Specie may roil up to $20,000,000 (by keeping back 
what we owe Europe) ; what then ? Can they get 
under way again ? I hope so, but certainly it did 
not work well in 1837. 

The moment the billholders and depositors can get 
the hard eagles, they are bound to have them, and 
most certainly they have a right to their own vine 
and fig-tree. Look at the banks of Rhode Island. 
Loans $18,000,000 against but $3,000,000 in specie ! 

In all New England there was only $7,000,000 spe- 
cie to $48,000,000 circulation. 

In Boston, a hundred merchants sign a paper, to 
say they believe the bank notes are perfectly good. 
The bank notes may be as good as the merchants' 
notes, but just now it is difficult to say which is 



318 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Blucher and which is "Wellington. In New- York, the 
banks prop up the merchants, and the merchants prop 
up the banks, and both " shake props" together. Make 
your game, gentlemen. Do you pass ? Whist. 

This panic may be over, but if it is, there's an- 
other close at hand. 

All kinds of tricks will be resorted to to stave off 
the blow. Thus far, we have only seen bank operate 
on bank, individual on individual, State on State. 
Wait till the shuttlecock of false credit rebounds from 
nation to nation. 

We must countermand all foreign orders ; retain gold 
(if we can, and pay our debts) ; cut off all luxuries ; re- 
duce necessities ; be economical, honestly if we can, but 
at any rate, be economical. There is one thing worth 
recording ; we have bread and meat enough in the 
country to feed every soul in the land. A factory 
girl can board for a dollar and a quarter a week. Six 
months will cost but thirty-two dollars, and there are 
few girls that have not got that much stored away, 
so they are all right for the coming winter. Yet, 
nevertheless, there must be much misery. 

The census of 1850 gives : operatives. 

In the New England States, - - - 300,000 
New Jersey, ------ 200,000 

Pennsylvania, 150,000 

Other States, 300,000 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 319 

In round numbers, a million of people employed in 
American manufactories. How many may be discharged ? 

I hesitate to make the figures. Truth may prove 
stranger than fiction. 

Already some fifty thousand workmen are out of 
employment. A few months later at least one-half of 
the operatives will be cast adrift. Think of a half 
million of men clamoring for something to do — some- 
thing to eat. Refuse them bread, and they will give 
you a stone. In times of expansion the laboring man 
fares better than in the hard money days, more es- 
pecially if his employer pays his board and lodging. 

In 1837 the crops were over-estimated. 'Tis the 
same in my judgment now. 

Farmers have given more attention to land specu- 
lations than they have to their grain crops. If our 
agricultural interests have been neglected, our corn and 
grain will be wanted at home. We had no surplus 
over last year ; and England any way must raise her 
prices to command any of the present crop. 

During the last seven years England has import- 
ed from all countries about 40,000,000 bushels of 
breadstuff's per annum. This year they will require 
about the same. The Mark Lane Express makes an 
estimate of where it is comins: from : 



320 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Bushels. 
The United States and Canadas, 12,000,000 

Denmark and the Dutchies, the Hanse Towns, and 

other parts of Germany, 8,000,000 

Southern Russia, 5,600,000 

Egyptian States, 4.000,000 

Wallachia and Moldavia, 1,500,000 

Turkey in Europe, 1,500,000 

Northern Russia, 1,500,000 

Spain and all other countries, 2,900,000 

37,000,000 

France, Holland, and Belgium will require all they 
can raise. 

'Tis a fearful thing when a nation is unable to pro- 
duce grain sufficient for its own population ; and it 
will be a very severe trial for England to have to 
pay away forty millions this year for bread. 

I trust that our crops are not exaggerated, yet I 
fear they have been ; comparatively speaking, nothing 
has come forward thus far, and as it is, we must 
wait another season. A bad crop next year would 
produce in this country a famine. Everett, in his 
beautiful speech at Buffalo, says : " Stop the produc- 
tion of a dozen articles of breadstuffs for ten days 
time, and eight hundred millions of people will die !" 

What shall we do with the unemployed ? Five 
hundred thousand able-bodied men will be soon -knock- 
ing at the door — "begging for leave to earn their 
bread," 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 321 

What is to be done ? 

First, when England asks us in the proper way, 
send one hundred thousand of them to India. The 
preparation of the equipments of the soldiers, their 
arms and munitions of war, provisions and general 
disbursements for a long voyage, will give employment 
to a wide circle of mechanics and traders. Shipping 
rotting at the wharves will show signs of life at the 
prospect of a fair freight to the East ; and labor is 
stimulated by getting away the ships, and giving 
stevedores and sailors something to do. All this to 
be paid for by England. 

Americans are better soldiers than Hessians, Ger- 
mans, or Swiss. An American is born a soldier. He 
commences in the cradle with a pop-gun. He shoots 
a woodcock on the wing at fourteen, and at twenty 
he is instructed to hit the squirrel in the eye. That 
story about Scott and the coon is no exaggeration. 

America has a standing army of a million of soldiers. 

West Point schools the officers ; and every State, 
every city, every county, every township, boasts its 
volunteer regiments. England can make a sure con- 
tract in this country to have India conquered in four 
weeks after landing in Bengal, for a fair compensation. 

America is a military nation ; but being a modest, 
unassuming people, we seldom talk about our stand- 
ing army. 

14* 



322 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

England is not — never has been — and never will be. 
Corporation laws forbid the firing of guns, and the 
only sharp-shooters in the kingdom, out of the army, 
are the poachers. "Where can the poor man learn to 
shoot ? Out of the British army, they never see a 
fire-arm. Alison says, England is not a military na- 
tion. The people have no woodcocks or squirrels to 
shoot. The game laws were made for the aristocracy. 
America has no game laws. And throughout our 
broad domain — from youth to manhood — you cannot 
find a young American who does not own a Bible, a 
grammar, and a gun. 

Well, having dispatched a hundred thousand to 
India, how are we to dispose of the rest ? 

Americans are prone to exploring expeditions. When 
men have "nothing to do," and "nothing to wear," 
and a prospect of u nothing to eat," they are apt to 
turn filibusters. It will be the case next year. Cen- 
tral America will be the grave of more Americans, 
Walker having run off of it, will now walk over the 
course. He has not given up the Central American 
race. That land first, and then Cuba. " There's the 
rub." Cuba we must and will have. Cuba is only 
alluvium washed from the Mississippi ; in fact all 
those islands were once a part of our continent. 
" What Grod has joined together let no man put 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 323 

asunder." The Cubans wish to be Americans. The 
Americans desire more intimate relations with the 
Cubans. The pear is ripe and ready to fall. Buy it, 
or it will be plucked. Let the Grovernment purchase 
it, and save the national honor. Hesitate, and the 
" Grem of the Antilles" will be stolen. 

The Ostend Manifesto speaks the mind of the Presi- 
dent, as well as of the people. The South wish it — 
the North will not object. Buy Cuba, and Kentucky, 
Maryland, Delaware, and most likely Virginia, -become 
free States, and free labor will make the wilderness 
blossom as the rose. Southward the eclipse of slavery 
takes its way. 

Let the Grovernment buy it, and keep us honest. 
'Tis wrong to so sorely tempt a filibustering people. 

After hard currency has proved the galvanic battery 
to bring the nation back to its senses, we may re- 
quire something more portable than specie. Draw for 
five hundred dollars in an Italian city, and the banker 
passes over to you a bag of silver that compels you 
to hire a cart to get it home. This is one of the evils 
of hard currency. Gro into Austria, they give you 
paper that almost falls to pieces in your hand, and is 
good for nothing over the frontier. This is one of 
the evils of paper money. 



3'24 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

America, having recovered from insolvency through 
the medium of hard currency, will require something 
more workable for the commerce of the country. With- 
out committing myself to the project, I believe the 
nation will call for a National Bank; for the people 
will be so disgusted with some of the disclosures that 
will be made by the old banks (the bona fide Schuy- 
lerisms), that will be brought to light, that they will 
cry for change (small change). 

Washington's National Bank, established 1791, ex- 
pired 1811, succeeded. Then, there were eighty-eight 
State Banks. 

Madison's National Bank, established 1816, expired 
1836, also succeeded. Then, there were two hundred 
and forty-six State Banks. (Now, there are over four- 
teen hundred.) 

But BiddWs " United States Bank of Pennsylva- 
nia" became a disgrace to the country ; 'and, because 
its connection with the National Bank was not well un- 
derstood, the Government unjustly received a taint upon 
its credit that will militate against any new project of 
the kind. 

There has been a good deal of talk about General 
Jackson's patriotism in removing the Deposits. I am a 
convert to the belief in human frailty, and for some time 
I have concluded that there is about as much humbug 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 325 

regarding great public acts, public sympathy, and Chris- 
tian philanthropy, as in everything else. 

With all proper respect to their respective memories, 
I think that " Old Hickory's" spite against old Biddle 
had more to do with the financial coup cVetat than any 
other motive — at any rate, the Bank died a natural 
death when its charter matured, but not till then. And 
I see nothing in its funeral sermon forbidding another 
institution, carefully framed to suit the wants and im- 
provements of the age. 

I know it has been fashionable to abuse the National 
Bank. I think it will, also, shortly be fashionable to 
abuse the Banking institutions of the present time. 

A National Bank would equalize exchanges. We 
should have then a currency that would take us from 
Saco to Sacramento, and every holder would feel that 
the bills were as good as gold. Passing our own do- 
main, foreign nations, oftentimes, would be glad to ac- 
cept such security. With such a credit the merchant 
could negotiate at Hakadadi, as well as at Patagonia. 
It has always been a Buncombe dodge to run down a 
Bank for the nation. " Too much power," " political 
agent," " prudence forbids the placing edge tools in the 
hands of party," and so on. 

With proper respect for such arguments, I should say 
that therein lies the people's best security. If the 



326 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

party in power abused their trust, kick them out at 
the next election. The people certainly can watch one 
Bank better than fourteen hundred ! We have now 
thirty-one kinds of paper. A sound national currency 
would be acceptable to all. The Suffolk Bank, of Bos- 
ton, is a self-created institution, so far as Country Banks 
are concerned ; and one or two of the New- York Banks 
take the same position here. 

Let a Bank start in New- York with fifty or a hun- 
dred millions of capital, the directors would rule the 
country, all the solvent Banks would have an account 
there ; those in bad odor would be thrown out, and 
they would fail. 

A Bank of this kind could be managed far better 
by the Grovernment than by such a corporation — we can 
trust the Grovernment. If they do the country any 
great wrong, the administration must fall when their 
term is out. In a National Bank, in case of war, acci- 
dent — anything to embarrass it, creditors would have 
no fear. The American Government will always pay. 
Temporary pressure may create delay, but principal and 
interest would eventually be paid. 

The public lands, the national revenues, the public 
honor, would be under a guarantee to meet every obli- 
gation. The security would be national. The people 
of this country are Americans, national honor is their 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 327 

proudest right — "America first! America last! America 
all the time !" should be the heartfelt feeling of every 
true American. That sentiment must always secure 
the nation's credit. 

"What is the basis of such a Bank ? 

Return to the Cuban question. The President tried 
to buy it for $150,000,000. Try $200,000,000. Spain 
owes England and France, England and France are in 
a tight place just now in money matters. They would 
wink at a sale now, that at any other time might pro- 
voke discussion. 

(rive, if necessary, $200,000,000, payable fifty years 
hence, in installments every twenty-five years, making 
a six per cent, interest. 

$200,000,000 at 6 per cent., = $12,000,000. 

Under American management, the island could be 
made to produce $25,000,000 per annum, which would 
leave the Government a handsome sum in the Treas- 
ury, and, long before the debt came due, we should 
have earned more than enough to pay for half a dozen 
such islands. 

The very soil is saccharine — Cuba can supply the 
world with sugar, and almost everything you wish to 
grow. Cuba is a garden land, and soon would pay for 
itself. 

But what will Spain say to the long credit ? Does 



328 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

she want to cash it ? There are few foreign capitalists 
but what would be glad to get such an investment in 
times like these, when European thrones are crackling 
under the smouldering fires of Revolution. But in this 
case, the trouble would be they couldn't get it — the 
American people wish it for themselves. 

Two hundred millions of G-overnment stock is just 
what we require for currency, (after hard money has 
restored the country to judgment.) Let that be the 
basis for a Banking system. 

If a modified hard currency system requires any 
G-overnment help, how easy it would be for the Sub- 
Treasury to issue certificates of deposit, ranging from 
ten dollars to a thousand. Deposit your gold with the 
G-overnment, and take a receipt ; that receipt is as 
good a currency as you require, until the new system 
is fairly under way. Congress will meet next month 
and the bill could be passed in an hour. 

I simply throw out these hints. Let the statesmen 
think them over, and make the raw iron into work- 
able steel, (that is a bad word.) Discussion must be 
provoked. 

Another point : in connection with giving employment 
to the workmen, that will soon be making night hide- 
ous and day unsupportable. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 329 

They must "be employed. 

The American G-overnment must adopt no picayune 
policy. Retrenchment in every quarter, but that which 
throws more labor upon the market. They must sup- 
port, not depress it. 

They must employ, not discharge workmen. The 
people must be taken care of. France gives them soup. 
Government improvements must go on. Stop building 
custom-houses, but nothing else. The last change in 
the tariff was like knocking out the first block in 
launching a ship — a touch or two more, another stroke 
of the hammer, and the splendid clipper ship, " Free 
Trade," Brother Jonathan, master, is in the market for 
a profitable charter. Stop building custom-houses, but 
let everything .else go on. G-overnment should avail 
itself of the material at the reduced prices, to employ 
at reduced rates the thousands who, next winter, 
will be in need of bread. This system of work should 
commence with the G-overnment, extend to the State, 
the county, the city, and the town. Let each get 
out of the din of Buncombe politics, and strike into 
some practical plan to take care of the people, who 
will be begging for something to do, so that they can 
get something to eat. 

Public buildings, avenues, streets, and roads need at- 
tention. Take New- York— some of the streets dis- 



330 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

grace a civilized land. Outside of the Russian cities, 
(where the sharp winter climate prevents improvement,) 
I have never seen such filthy, irregular thoroughfares, 
as those in this city. In some places, near the wharves, 
I doubt whether you would get a colony of well-bred 
hogs to settle there, the stench is so unhealthy. 
A large number of men can be kept busy, and the 
nation enriched by making wholesome reforms. Let 
some broad and practical measures be adopted to pro- 
vide for the coming winter. 

There is still another field for labor, larger than all — 
a field that soon must be cultivated. California, as I have 
before said, produces, in gold and silver, as much value 
as one-third the entire cotton crop. The resources of 
that State are astonishing, when you consider that ten 
years ago the land was, comparatively, a wilderness. 
Already, the Californians have sent some of the sur- 
plus crops to the Atlantic markets, and are producing 
luxuries as well as necessities at their own doors. 

The country prospers. Gold is pouring in upon us 
by every mail. We have obtained from her during the 
nine months of the present year, $35,262,243, against 
$37,285,863 in 1856. The falling off of $2,023,620 
may be regained the last quarter. 

Thirty thousand majority have just voted to pay 
their State obligations. I knew it would be so. Next 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 331 

election, the vote will be unanimous. Americans would 
rather put their hands in their pockets, than see their 
State shirking its debt on some lawyer's quibble. 

Our railways extend beyond the Mississippi. An- 
other four thousand miles, and we are on the Pacific. 
Again, let the Government step out with a bold national 
plan to bind California to her sister States with a 
band of iron. It must be done, sooner or later. " West- 
ward the star," &c. California has now a position in 
the world. She is located in just the right place 
to assist in carrying out the destiny of these United 
States. 'Tis the high road to China and the East, 
and by the time the railway is completed, the lines 
of mail steamers are running to China, Formosa and 
Japan, some of the " Old Colonists," a part of the 
100,000 volunteers who settled in the country, after 
the conquest of India, will desire to return to their 
Atlantic homes, by the way of the Pacific and the 
Rocky Mountains. 

This road would furnish work for much of the sur- 
plus labor of 1858. New countries would be opened 
up ; new life instilled into the country ; new resources 
would be discovered, and we should have a due watch 
over the Benedict Arnold movements of Brigham Young. 
" The mountains shall be brought low, and the valleys 



332 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

raised up, and we shall make you a highway of 
nations." 

Private enterprise built the Panama road, every pile 
of which rests on the corpse of an Irishman. If pri- 
vate enterprise has done all this, what may not Gov- 
ernment accomplish in carrying out this grand project 
of joining the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ?— to em- 
ploy the labor of the land, and to introduce new chan- 
nels of commerce — new fields for American enterprize. 

The project is worthy of our country. The Govern- 
ment can manage it by supporting individual enter- 
prise. But some quid nunc is asking about the money. 
None is required until the road is built and earning 
something. 

The laborers on the Western Railway by taking 
State scrip saved Massachusetts from repudiating. 
What applies to- a State, applies to a nation. 

No security is better than the United States Govern- 
ment. Buy the iron with scrip. Pay the contractors, 
the workmen, all hands, with scrip. Buy the sleepers, 
build the road, with the national signature. No mat- 
ter if the Government does get swindled out of twenty 
millions by the contractors. That is nothing compared 
to the national gain. $150,000,000 builds the road. 
Make the scrip redeemable as may be arranged. This, 
added to the Cuban paper, gives $350,000,000 — a suf- 
ficient bank capital for the wants of the times. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 333 

Let some sound financier enlarge upon these points. 
Discussion these times will bring out some wholesome 
ideas, 

"Why not have a congress of merchants, bankers, 
manufacturers, and farmers ? 

Pick out your men, your practical men ; men who 
think in the morning and think at night ; men who 
are always thinking, and instinctively too ; and who, 
after reflection, act. 

Let worth have the preference over wealth. Choose 
brains instead of dollars. 

In ten days you can bring delegates from every 
State ; and out of a picked assembly there must be 
some sound opinions. 

Don't let it be like that disgraceful exhibition in 
Wall Street Don't let it be like that puny affair 
in Boston ; but let it be an assembly of clear-headed, 
large-brained, intelligent, practical men (who will re- 
pudiate nothing except " cut and dried " resolutions). 
Don't allow any man to enter the debate whose whole 
life has been devoted to isms. Argue about cause and 
effect, supply and demand, industry and honesty. Dis- 
cuss the currency, and don't talk buncombe. Be prac- 
tical. Admit lawyers, upon the ground that " common 
law " is only " common sense." Shut the door against 
politicians. They have no time to be useful ; they 



384 YOtJNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

all expect to be Presidents, and their time is occupied 
at the, wires. 

Let Boston and New- York men fight it out by ar- 
gument in debate, not in letters that irritate without 
alleviating the disorder. 

Mr. Appleton is out in another letter. 

He asserts that the banks of New- York have caused 
the crisis. That history cannot produce another in- 
stance of such gross " ignorance" on the part of bank 
managers. That "circulation and deposits" are one 
and the same thing. That the suspension was " not 
the result of natural causes." That " no doubt there 
are cases in which individuals and banks have ex- 
tended their credits to their own injury, but the pre- 
sent evil arises wholly from the sudden check or stop- 
page of the credits which the New- York banks had 
so freely given." 

"The present evil," he says, " is, not too much, but 
too little, credit ! " 

These points have already been touched upon and 
replied to in this volume. I need not take them up 
again only to prove one thing; that, if Mr. Apple- 
ton's theory is the true one, our banking system is 
established on entirely a false basis. If he is right, 
the currency laws are all wrong. Fifty-five presidents 
of fifty-five banks never should have possessed the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 335 

power to make a nation bankrupt. That the banks 
are too greedy, I do not deny. That they have 
dealt in stock, all admit. That they have gone far 
beyond their means, in inflating everything to unheard 
of prices — discounting kites (in some cases so ingeni- 
ously made that they thought them legitimate business 
paper) on the ground that one half the proceeds should 
remain on deposit, to furnish capital on which to base 
another transaction of the same nature, in order to 
meet dividends — on all which points I agree with Mr. 
Appleton. But when he asserts and reasserts again, 
that everything is sound at heart, he must pardon me 
for not enjoying the same opinions. 

The high-toned character which Nathan Appleton has 
borne for over half a century, gives weight to his 
judgment, and I trust he will not consider it disre- 
spectful in me because I have made bold to differ 
with him. 

I am sure he will not blame me for presuming to 
discuss the question with him. 

Age before youth, always. Experience is a good 
monitor. 

Young men, profiting by the experience of the old, 
will not be blamed for not being forty years of age. 
Chatham once humbled Walpole on that very point. 



odD YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

It has long been a theory of mine that a man's pa- 
rents solely are responsible for his age, his color and 
his nationality (therefore, why snub a man, when he 
has no control over those accidents of his life ?) 

New- York is a central point. Let no jealousy cause 
delay. The time has come for action. Why not take 
the "bull" by the horns and teach him how to destroy 
the "bear"? 

There are many that believe that the issues of the 
State banks are unconstitutional. Certainly they, are 
since the suspension. " Grold and silver" are the words 
in the national law. 

^Randolph, forty years ago, said a man might as 
well attack Gibraltar with a pocket pistol, as pro- 
secute a bank, whether legal or illegal. A congress 
of practical men will suggest reforms. 'Tis time to 
introduce them. - 

The practical opinions of the practical men of the 
country would be of great service to a theoretical 
administration. Washington is lighted by "Buncombe" 
gas. Would not daylight be cheaper ? " 

Party despotism should give way to Republican 
right. The giant arm of partizan spoil should be 
broken. Nicholas's conversation with Buchanan was 
most instructive. Why would it not be well to in- 
troduce, if possible, a little more dignity into the man- 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 337 

agement of public affairs ? The press of this coun- 
try think (?) they rule it with a rod of iron. 
Let them raise the cry of " Government reform, state 
reform, city reform, and township reform!" 'Tis a cry- 
ing shame to see armed men parading the streets of 
Baltimore. 'Tis a pitiful sight to see a great nation 
at sea without a compass : the compass of right, of 
virtue, and of truth. 'Tis disgraceful to keep open 
that Kansas sore. Let us have some practical legis- 
lation. Bury buncombe and dig up our Federal na- 
tionality. The North and the South must ever be 
friends ; the East and West are brothers. Disunion- 
ists may sneer, bnt nevertheless 'tis true ; we all be- 
long to the same family — the family of Washington. 

Let us forget the little animosities of partizan feuds. 
During my lifetime the country has been kept agi- 
tated by an ISM — a quarter of a century of pro- 
and-anti talk ; twenty-five years of loathsome sectional 
vituperation. 

For twenty-five years the North and the South 
have been dueling. The principals are all living; the 
seconds ousrht to be shot. 

o 

Nothing disgusts me so much as the Exeter Hall 
cant in Sunderland House. England had better let 
this country manage its own business. 'Tis some- 
time since we were twenty-one years of age. — 

15 



338 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET 



Let her look at home, and tell me which is the 
worst, the slavery of the mind or the slavery of the 
body. 

Many an American has had these lines of Campbell 
hissed in his ear : 

United States ! your banner bears 
Two emblems — one of fame! 

Alas — tbe other that it wears, 
Reminds us of your shame ! 

The white man's liberty in types 
Stands blazoned by your stars ; 

But what's the meaning of your stripes ? 
Unless your negro's scars ! 

— and of late years there is many an Englishman 
who will remember Mr. Lunt's retort : 

England ! whence came that meteor hue 
That tints your flow of meteor light ? 

The streaming red, the deeper blue, 
Crossed by the moonbeams pearly white^? 

The blood and bruise — the blue and red — 
Let India's groaning millions speak ; 

The white, it tells the color fled, 
From starving Erin's pallid cheek. 

Gro into the manufacturing districts, and then come 
over among the Southern planters. Speak plainly ; 
take facts — observe both classes — and decide which is 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 339 

the happier of the two. The Honorable Miss Murray 
says, the slave. 

Remember that, (like the fabled blood of Rizzio in 
Holyrood Palace,) slavery was not our own creation 
The stain was made by other hands. Under the 
primogeniture laws of England, slavery was one of 
the vices which we inherited from the mother land, 
when we gave a " Shriek for Freedom " in 1776. 
Our virtues were our own. 'Twas a long time be- 
fore England abolished the traffic; not until her mer- 
chants made themselves wealthy in the slave trade, — 
and then, with a Wilberforcian horror, she discovers 
the national sin. 

The times are changing. May not anti-slavery 
England again open up the slave trade ? France com- 
menced it last year. The French Government, through 
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, signed a contract, 
March 13th, with MM. Regis, to transport 5,000 
coolies to Gruadaloupe, and 5,000 to Martinique, in 
800-ton steamers, for $100 each. Terms, 10 years 
labor at $2 50 per month, deducting forty cents for 
passage. 

England, I fancy, would like to have, about this 
time, that one hundred millions of dollars which she 
paid away to make the garden of her West Indian 
possessions a barren desert. 



S40 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALl>STItEET, 

Not contented with planting the evil in our soil 5 
she resorts to every possible measure to extend it, 
Cotton has been paid for on the American planta- 
tion with British money —shipped (in former days) in 
British ships — sent to a British port — -carried over a 
British rail—manufactured in a British factory— sent 
back again to America — where, after paying a high 
duty, fabrics formed of our own staple are sold to 
us at prices lower than we can manufacture our- 
selves. Anti-slavery England, then, is the real slave 
upholder. Why was this ? Steam and credit. The 
introduction of the steam-engine reduced labor to a 
few pence per diem, and credit lowered money to two 
per cent, per annum. Hence, America has never been 
able to compete with England. But now the times 
are changing. 

Stand from under. The "inverted pyramid" of ar- 
tificial credit is about tumbling over, on the na- 
tional and individual debts of Europe. No ! England 
shows as little judgment as genuine philanthropy, in 
continually meddling with our " Peculiar Institution." 
Next winter the slaves of the South will be much 
better fed than the free operatives of Manchester. 

England had but 300,000 bales of cotton on hand 
on the arrival of the last mail ; not thirty thousand 
bales are on the ocean. The planters will not sell 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 341 

(till the price gets down to six cents). Let them 
keep it back two months longer, and they will cause 
the most terrible R,e volution that England has ever 
seen. Running at full speed, she has only about six 
weeks consumption. Retain the cotton, and England 
trembles as with the palsy. Ten years have hardly 
gone since two hundred thousand special constables 
in London were sworn in to keep the peace. Louis 
Napoleon was one of them. And yet, a few years 
later, the Queen of England gazed upon the tomb of 
the banished Bonaparte at Paris, while his Imperial 
nephew was standing by her side ; her special police- 
man was Emperor of France ! To-day that Emperor 
lives in a glass house. 

The domestic peace of England hangs upon our 
cotton ; Our cotton remains in the Southern presses, and 
ships are ready to receive it, but where are the 
shippers ? 

Panics are contagious ; England has not been vaccin- 
ated ; what is varioloid with us will be the real 
disease with her. Each European mail will bring 
startling intelligence from the Old "World. The times 

ARE CHANGING. 

The financial crisis gives birth to the political Rev- 
olution ; Frost is already advocating his Chartist meet- 
ings ; Jones is writing his Reform speeches ; Grerald 



342 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Massey is preparing his bonfire poems ; Ireland is 
training for the prize fight ; yet England sleeps on 
her National Debt of four thousand millions of dol- 
lars as unconscious of the approaching danger as an 
unborn babe. The people wish to square off the debt 
and stop the taxes. * 

* " We can inform Jonathan what are the inevitable consequences of 
being too fond of glory: — Taxes upon every article which enters into 
the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the foot — taxes 
upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste — 
taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion — taxes on everything on 
earth, and the waters under the earth — on everything that comes 
from abroad, or is grown at home — taxes on the raw material — taxes 
on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man — 
taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite, and the drug that 
restores him to health — on the ermine which decorates the judge, and 
the rope which hangs the criminal — on the poor man's salt and the 
rich man's spice — on the brass nails of the coffin and the ribbons of 
the bride — at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay. The 
school-boy whips his taxed top — the beardless youth manages his 
taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road: — and the dying 
Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid 7 per cent., into a 
spoon that has paid 15 per cent., flings himself back upon his chintz 
bed, which has paid 22 per cent., and expires in the arms of an 
apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privi- 
lege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately 
taxed from 2 to 10 per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are de- 
manded for burying him in the chancel ; his virtues are handed down 
to posterity on taxed marble; and he is then gathered to his fathers, 
to be taxed no more. In addition to all this, the habit of dealing 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 343 

Pardon me for having run away from the text. The 
pen will sometimes play the truant. When floating 
for a long time on an unknown sea, the prudent na- 
vigator takes his observation. That sea is America ; 
Congress the navigator. 

A month hence, and the capitol is full. Now, as 
the everlasting discussion of negro slavery has occu- 
pied our statesmen, our press, our politicians, for so 
many years, without accomplishing anything but to 
extend it, I would suggest, as an experiment, a littla 
practical legislation on our national laws, our foreign 
relations, our internal improvements, our currency, and 
all subjects of vital import to the American people. 
We begin to miss those great minds of the last gene- 
ration. 

11 Lo ! Carolina mourns her steadfast pine, 

Which, like a mainmast, towered above the realm ; 
And Ashland hears no more that voice divine, 
From out the branches of her forest elm ! 

with large sums will make the government avaricious and profuse 
and the system itselt will infallibly generate the base vermin of spies 
and informers, and a still more pestilent race of political tools and re- 
tainers of the meanest and most odious description ; while the prodigi- 
ous patronage which the collecting of this splendid revenue will throw 
into the hands of government, will invest it with so vast an influence 
and hold out such means and temptations to corruption, as all the 
virtue and public spirit, even of republicans, will be unable to resist.' 7 
[Sydney Smith. — Edinburgh Review, 1820. 



344 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

And MarshfielcPs giant oak, whose stormy brow 
Has ofttimes turned the ocean tempest from the West, 

Lies on the shore he guarded long, 

And now our startled eagle knows not where to rest." 

Since my remembrance, this country has been agitated 
by legislating for the " blacks." The whites have been 
neglected. There are about three millions of the one 
and twenty-five millions of the other. Now, while I 
have the best possible feeling toward the "blacks," I 
have also the highest respect for the whites ; and as 
twenty-five millions of the latter have been requested 
to stand aside, so that the three millions of the 
former might be attended to, I am an advocate now 
for a change in our Congressional policy. 

Leave the "blacks" alone for the next ten years, and 
take care of the "whites." The whites deserve more 
attention than Congress has devoted to them, and hav- 
ing legislated for the blacks for so long a time, they 
have at least the democratic right of the majority to 
protest against anything more being done for so in- 
considerable a minority in numbers, to say nothing for 
the question of equality, — at least for some few years. 

There has been enough talk on the question to fill 
the British Museum with reading matter ; yet, after 
all, no one has discovered any invention to bleach a 
black man white. Next winter, the slaves of the South 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 345 

will be sheltered, clothed, and fed, while multitudes of 
free-born men are pale with want, demanding labor to 
purchase bread. 

In such times as these, the futile discussion of the 
slave question had better be thrown under the table, 
not to be taken up again 'till Congress has legislated 
on some of the practical questions of the day. The 
whites demand a hearing. 

As the times are changing everywhere, why not give 
up for a while the continual bickerings on a subject 
that cannot be touched without provoking unpleasant 
reflections. Let us be Americans — not Northerners or 
Southerners — but simply Americans. Union should be 
the last thought as we sleep — the first when we wake. 
Let us ever pray for — 

" A union of lakes, a union of lands, 
A union of States, none can sever ; 
A union of hearts, a union of hands, 
And the flag of our Union forever 
And ever ! 
The flag of our Union forever !" 

A few months more, and the strong arm of military 
power may be required to preserve order. 

Let us maintain our national rank. We have laws, 
they must be obeyed. We have laws, but not always 
justice. 

Out of evil good may come — order spring forth from 
15* 



346 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

chaos. California, at one time, was full of evil spirits. 
The law was ineffectual; then the people rose up in 
their might, and said, " Let there be justice," and 
there was justice ; and now where can you find a 
place more orderly and quiet than San Francisco ? 

There will he no necessity for such measures here. 
England feeds the poor ; France gives them soup. The 
people are not allowed to starve in Europe, in Asia, 
or in Africa ; nor will they be in America. 

Government will do what it can. But when men 
meet in masses in public squares, and talk sedition, 
rapine, violence, demand money, (not work and bread,) 
they must take care that they do nothing more than 
talk. 

In 1837, " Bread, meat, rent and fuel," were on 
the banners, and " Down with the prices." 

In 1857, "Work!"— "Arbeit!" are the words on 
the flag. 

Let them break the law — let them step beyond the 
line of civil avthority — and military power will clear the 
streets with grape. G-eorge the Fourth gave tone to the 
law — Napoleon knows well its meaning — and the Ameri- 
can volunteer militiaman will shoot down his own broth- 
er, if that brother dares to place himself beyond the law 
of right, of equality, or of justice. 

Herein lies the strength of the American Republic. 



OUTLINE 



GRAND FINANCIAL DRAMA. 



CANTO I. 

"7 had a dream which was not all a dream." 

PLACE : A PROSPEROUS COUNTRY. 

Time : Indian Summer. Hour : Midnight. 

Coming storm. Whirlwind. 

Houses unroofed. " Doors unlocked," 

Devil on two sticks 

Discovers some people in other people's beds. Imp Number One 

"chased" — Number Two, not. 

Offered bribe to keep dark — Accepts, and blabs. 

Magazine — Torch. 

Falling houses. 

CANTO II. 

U A change came o er the spirit of my dream." 

A COLONY OP CARRION KITES. 

History. 

Kite Number One proposes to Kite Number Two. 

Marriage. Children. Old Kites feed Young Kites. 



348 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Shows them how to use their Bills, and lends them their first 

Notes. 

Old Kite fails. 0. L. & T. Go. 

Western Kites flock in. 

Arrival of Credits. Cash balances absorbed. 

Collection paper in other Kites' nests. 

Neighboring Kites sitting on bad eggs. 

Foreign Kites eyes — not open. 

Some Home Kites Blind. 

Old Kite loses tail feathers. 

Young Kite smells rat. 

•* * # 

1837, wind raised Kite — 1857, Kite raised wind. 

Kites fly abroad. 

Crows arrive. 

Croaks. 

Eats. 

No hole 



CANTO III. 

" A change came o'er the spirit of my dream." 

RAILROAD. 

Bonds — England. 

President makes tracks — Directors make Notes. 

Dividends. Stocks rise. 

Board short. 

Bridge falls. Train off the Track. 

Receiver appointed. 

Gratuitous offers to ride Directors on their own rail. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 349 



CANTO IV. 

"A change came o'er the spirit of my dream." 

BROADWAY. 

Fast Merchant in fast Warehouse desires fast Clerk to keep 

fast accounts. Advertises. 

Elegant man appears. 

Good morning. Apply for ? — Yes. 

Keep horse? — Yes. 
Fast Horse ? — Yes. 
House ? — Yes. 
Furnished ? — Yes. 
Married ? — No. 

Fond of female society ? — Yes. 
Billiard table ?— Yes. 
Diamond ring ? — Yes. 
AU paid for ?— Yes. 
All right — you'll do. 
{Aside to partner — Has all these things now — good man — won't 
get them out of us.) 



CANTO V. 

" A change came o'er the spirit of my dreamP 

GROCERY STORE. 

Pious Deacon. 
John, watered rum ? — Yes, sir. 
Wet Tobacco ? — Yes, sir 
Sanded Sugar? — Yes, sir. 



350 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Mixed Coffee ?— Yes, sir. 

Oak leaves in Tea ?— Yes, sir. 

Charged Cheese ? — Yes, sir. 

Charge again before forget it, and come to prayers. 

("Old!") 



CANTO VI. 

More change. 
lawyer's office. 
Teller Bank, excited. 
One hundred and fifty thousand out. 
Directors informed ? — No. 
Take as much more — Position to compromise. 
Advice follows. 
Compromises for seventy -five thousand, 
and 
Travels on Continent ! 



CANTO VII. 

"A change came o'er the spirit of my dream " 

THREAD-NEEDLE STREET CHESS-BOARD. 

Members Exchequer — Exchange Stock on " Stock Exchange." 

Bishop behind Queen. 

Bustle in Court — Castles in air — P arras in demand. 

Knight approaching — Fair Exchange no robbery. 

John Bull checkmated. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 351 



CANTO VIII. 

Dream still changing. 

CRICKET MATCH. 

All the World against England. 

Bank holds stakes. 

Nearly bowled out. 

"Small change.'" 

TEN PINS. 

Head Pin — Bonaparte. 

Crisis — First Ball. 

Ten strike. 

All down. 

• # * 

A NEW GAME. 



CANTO IX. 
u A change came o'er the spirit of my dream." 

OLD BUNCOMBE LITERARY CLUB. 

Johnson, Speaker. 

Goldsmith, review "Rasselas"' — I'll review "Traveller." 

Garrick, bring "Irene" on stage — speak of you in "Rambler." 

Sir Joshua Reynolds, paint my portrait for Town Hall — word for 

you in " Spectator." 

Bozzy, follow me through Scotland — write — question — answer — go 

down to posterity together. 

Et cetera. 



352 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

NEW BUNCOMBE — HOW TO MAKE A PRESIDENT. 

Say I'm clever fellow, I'll say you are. 

I'll tell everybody you are rich, you tell everybody I am. 

Freemasonry — Mum's the word. 

" Little Giant." 

Kansas. 

Talk— Write. 

Know "no North, no South, no East, no "West." 

Make your game. 

Choose players. 

Four for Whist. 

"Wires. 



Clubs trumps — Diamonds lead. 

Hearts lose — Spades win. 

No honors ! 



CANTO X. 

(Can — Canto— Canton.) 
11 A change came o'er the spirit of my dream" 

BOOK STORE. DERBY AND JACKSON'S. 

" Young America in Wall-Street." 

Observations — Old America, "read it?" Yes. 

"Bosh!" Young America, (quietly.) "Good." 

Cries — " Put him out„" " Gammon." " Gas." " Humbug." 

" High-fa-lu-tin." " Lunatic Asylum." 

Young America, smiles and passes on. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 353 

CANTO XI. 

FINANCIAL SERMON. 

" He that giveth to the poor, lendeth unto the Lord." 

"There's your security: 
Down with your dust." — Bean Swift. 

Dream burst. 

Change all gone. 



354 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

[Printer's boy gives me another hour — another thought 
or two — another salmagundian page — and then Buon 
giorno /] 



In after years Young America will decline a crisis, 
under the credit system, by the rule of three. 

1851-2-3 — Positive, Boil ! 
1854-5-6 — Comparative, Boiler ! 
1857-8-9 — Superlative, Burst ! 

Ancient financiers understood the availability of 
hard currency. 

Absalom paid hard cash for Ephon. 

Solomon had to fork over silver to finish the temple. 

Lycurgas, not considering gold and silver hard 
enough, made the Spartans use iron. 

Chinese " cash" is made of the same material. 

Pericles ostracised Cymon for taking a cash bribe. 
How many members of Congress resigned last session 
for a similar "indiscretion?" 

Cincinnatus, after he refused the consulship and went 
to farming, sold his cabbages for the hardest kind of 
currency. Who would refuse a consulship now ? 

Solon's name saved Cyrus from burning Croesus at 
the stake, says history. I think, however, it was a 
question of hard cash. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 355 

Demosthenes' virtue was not equal to refusing a 
" Tip" in hard cash. 

Although Euclid gave more attention to logic than 
morals, he never closed his hand against a little hard 
cash. 

Alfred divided the twenty-four hours into three 
parts : first, to Grod ; second, to public affairs ; third 
to rest and refreshment. 

Alfred's descendants have devoted their whole time 
to making money — but not hard cash. 

The Bank of Venice, established in 1171, lived six 
hundred years on a hard cash principle. 

Columbus discovered a world, and was sent home 
in chains ! 

Scott conquered a nation, and was court-martialed ! 
In both cases, 'twas a question of hard cash. 

Cardinal Woolsey's plate was only so much hard 
cash. 

Cardinal Wiseman can become a Pope — if he has a 
sufficient pile of hard cash. 

Cromwell's soldiers refused to break into the " star 
chamber" till they got the hard cash. 

John Milton received for the " Paradise Lost" but 
seventy -five dollars, hard cash ! 

The Bank of Amsterdam, established in 1609, lived 
till 1795 on a hard cash system. The Bank of Ham- 
burg never has adopted any other. 



356 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Chatterfon committed the most startling forgery the 
world ever saw when but seventeen, and then com- 
mitted suicide — all for a little hard cash. 

Surajah-ul-Dowlah marched into Calcutta and mur- 
dered the European community, a hundred years ago, 
to get a .little hard cash. 

Nena Sahib may be passing over the same road now 
for a similar purpose. 

When Franklin arrived in Philadelphia, with a penny 
roll, he had one dollar in hard cash in his pocket. 

Paganini gained by music and lost by gaming 
several fortunes in hard cash. 

When Tom Paine wrote the " Decline and Fall of 
the System of Finance in England," he advocated hard 
cash. 

Grarrick stepped out of a wine-cellar on to the stage 
in order to make a little more hard cash. 

When the natives of Bombay presented Sir Charles 
Forbes with that magnificent service of plate, it simply 
proved that in India there was plenty of hard cash. 

England broke down the " continental system" of Na- 
poleon at Waterloo through the agency of hard cash 
abroad, manufactured out of credit at home. 

MenschikofF rose from a peasant to a prince by 
properly understanding the system of hard cash. 

Lafitte, the great French banker, who made Louis 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 35? 

Philippe king, might have kept on his feet by the aid 
of a little hard cash. 

But why continue the examples? Some " paper 
man" will make as good an argument. Nevertheless, 
money is money, and paper is paper, and always will 
be, so long as a bargain is like a baby. 

Gold stands fire and smoke. Paper is destroyed by 
the one, and blackened by the other. 

Money goes in a circle — from hand to hand — from 
State to State — from nation to nation ; and like the 
" boomerang" returns again from whence it started. 
China and India may break the circle for a while, but 
eventually the money will return. 'Tis not so with 
paper, a little while, and it wears itself away. 

Drop a globule of quicksilver on the table, and it 
flies into a thousand pieces. But you may gather it 
all together again. So it is with genuine money. 

Paper, when torn, is scattered wherever the wind 
listeth. 

Hard currency cannot be destroyed. You cannot 
drink it, you cannot eat it. The natural laws of 
supply and demand send it away and bring it back. 
The crisis has only blown away the cobwebs. All 
the money that was in the country remains here 
still 



358 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



The fabulous fortunes of last year were never made. 
'Twas all imagination — air castles — not real brick and 
mortar. The money never existed. Humbug was the 
foundation, humbug was the first floor, and humbug 
finished the roof. The ground — the real money — is 
still a living thing. Years hence, reflecting men will 
endorse the same opinions. 

Kites are not money. Credit is not money. Dombey 
failed to explain it to Paul. (Toots, when the com- 
mercial man at Brighton asked him what he expected 
England would do with the large quantities of the 
"raw material" then being received from various parts 
of the world, replied that he thought she would "eat 
it.") 

Gold arrives from England, t and the boxes, un- 
packed, return in the same steamer. More kites ? 

Letters of deposit from English banks arrive by the 
same conveyance. We, in our innocence, receive these 
fictitious values — these well arranged kites — -as coined 
gold ! Hedging is what may be called cheating fair 
— -the favorite against the field. "Win this race and 
you shall have a thousand pounds," said the noble earl. 
"I will, although I have been offered two thousand not 
to win," replied the jockey. The immense fortunes in 
this country were never made. Take sugar ; now it 
goes up, up, up ! and now it goes down, down, down ! 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 359 

Above a certain point, consumption falls away. You 
may raise prices on the Stock Exchange to any mar- 
gin by continually buying. Commence to sell, and the 
turn is equally rapid. 

All bad news is generally discounted, so far as the 
public are concerned. The press gets the first intel- 
ligence ; "a friend" is informed; he buys or sells — 
tells his friend — who tells another, and their opera- 
tions has moved the market up or down ; so that, 
when the public rush in, they are just in time to 
be plucked. "What broker will deny the charge ? 
What outsider ever came away from the gaming-table 
a winner ? The race is generally decided before the 
horses run. The lottery prize (in some cases ?) is ar- 
ranged in advance. The story of the Bottle Imp il- 
lustrates the stock operation. So long as the holder 
of the bottle could sell, he was safe. It was passed 
rapidly from hand to hand, but Satan caught 
the hindmost. Some man must be the loser. There 
is a " Peter Funk and stool pigeon " in every trade — 
"a skeleton (crinoline?) in every house." 

Hard currency will assist the nation in starting 
afresh. Credit is what Judge Daly would call a 
" necessary evil;" and the way to get it, said Co- 
lonne, is to live extravagantly. It creates — it destroys. 
It dies a natural death, and is born again. 



§60 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

But the Fuller reflections of the late editor of the 
Mirror, may be more acceptable than mine. Hear 
him— 

" Paper representatives of money have been mis- 
taken for property ; and the whole world of bankers, 
merchants, shopkeepers, and manufacturers, under the 
fatal illusions of the credit system, have been ' like 
little wanton boys swimming on bladders.' Now the 
bubbles burst ; there is a universal sinking ; the day 
of settlement and of l judgment ' has come. The 
smiling wanton, seducing, bedecked and bedezined siren, 
Credit, wrings her white hands and tears her golden 
hair. 

' - ' Where will this end ? Ye powers of good ! ? 
She weeping cries forever. 
A voice replies from out the flood, 
' Forever-— and forever ! ' " 

Exaggeration is the fashion — full steam everywhere. 
English agents force importers to buy — importers force 
jobbers — jobbers employ drummers to stick western 
merchants — western merchants buy land and stick 
them all. 

It has been an India-rubber system. Who has for- 
gotten the ten-inch India rubber pantaloons worn with 
straps ? One strap gives way. Imagine the appearance 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 361 

and sensations of the owner in a crowded street. Only- 
one strap has broken in the crisis. 

Bad times make bad men ; or rather, good times 
make them bad, and bad times expose them. 

Then both straps are cut. 

The London Globe announced the other day, under 
the head of " Fashionable Departures," the names of 
Paul, Strahan, Bates, Robson, Agar, Tester, Saward and 
Redpath, all passengers on board the "Nile" convict- 
ship. (Punch, funny fellow, denied it.) 

If 1855 and 1856 were so prolific of scamps, what 
may we expect of 1857 and 1858 ? 

The beaut}? of the patent hen-scratching machine is 
in permitting the astonished fowl to quietly scratch 
herself out of the garden. The "panic detector" is 
equally effectual in exposing the dishonest servant. The 
balance sheet of some of the banks will prove a curi- 
osity, when the books are opened. Look at the 
" Island City." Where's Alibone ? where's Clark? 

Even Condorcet never could have explained the " in- 
tegral calculations " of the " Ohio Life and Trust Com- 
pany." To use the cashier's words, the acounts are 
"unreliable for any purpose whatever — either to show 
its debts or credits ! " Is this the only company simi- 
larly situated ? 

England, America, and the World are hard up for 
hard cash. Everybody is "running" everywhere. 

16 



362 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

An explosion in America must occasion an explosion 
in England. 

Every ten years the grand crisis comes round. The 
intermediate panics are ripples before the maelstrom. 
You may go back two centuries if you like. 

Child got up the first bank in 1667. 

Extravagance of Courts and Dutch invasion caused 
a run, the first ten-year crisis stampede. 

The arbitrary closing of the Exchequer ruined the 
bankers, five years later. 

The National Bank of 1683 broke down, but got 
under way again in 1694. The Darien and New River 
Companies were born about same time. 

Macaulay gives a graphic account of the sus- 
pension when it was only twelve months old. This 
was the "clipper" coinage age. The Branch project 
fell through. Hoare and Child took advantage of the 
Pretender's threatened invasion to run the bank, but a 
twenty per cent, call upon shareholders saved them. 
(The Illinois Central only asked for ten.) 

The mob of 1709 made a rush for the gold, as the 
Bowery Boys, in 1837, did for the flour. 

The Queen's illness caused another run in 1713, but 
the moment the Queen got better the bank got well. 
When the Queen died next year, the bank was taken 
suddenly ill — only another run. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 363 " 

When G-eorge the First rode into power on the waves 
of rebellion, he only paid six per cent, for interest. 
Law had just left Scotland for France. His scheme 
was horn, lived and died, in two years time. 

This absurd speculation, and the " South Sea Bub- 
ble," so well described by Anderson, Smollet, and 
Mackay, I have touched on in previous pages. 

The Pretender was always keeping the Bank Direc- 
tors in a " coniption." In 1722, the Old Lady was 
again crowded. Ten years later, that huge pile of un- 
couth, one-story, square-topped mass of stone was 
erected, in Threadneedle street, and the founder of 
the Bank, William the Third, was honored by a statue. 

The " sixpenny" dodge of 1745 saved the depositors 
from breaking the bank. Agents of the bank mono- 
polized all the time of the tellers in receiving sixpen- 
ces, which they returned by the back door. (What 
will the directors do .this time ?) 

The panic of 1772 failed a host of bankers, but 
their entire liabilities would not pay for our annual 
consumption of European " nothingness." 

Lord G-eorge Gordon's Protestant riot attempted to 
relieve the vaults of their bullion, in 1780 ; this ac- 
counts for the soldiers which you see there on guard. 
Who didn't fail in 1793? 1797 has been discussed 
before ; so has 1814, when the Stock Exchange falsely 
reported the fall of Bonaparte. 



864 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

Four years after, five thousand bankruptcies were 
reported. The run of 1832 rose out of the Reform 
Bill, and the community were disgusted when they 
learned how extensively the directors had feathered 
their nests in 1836. When the forgeries on Conti- 
nental bankers (using Grlynn, Mills & Co^'s name,) 
were exposed, the London Times won laurels; yet 
they declined to receive a penny, and gave it all to 
charities. Sometimes, the Times is far ahead of the 
times— again, it is west-sou' -west, half^'es^, Captain 
West. 

The Exchequer Bill forgeries of 1841, amounted to 
some $5,000,000. We shall see something more ex- 
tensive than that by-and-by, 

Commence in 1667 with the first crisis, and end 
with 1867, when, if history don't lie, we shall have 
another. Every- ten years— this gives twenty panics 
in all. 

Now, I argue that the panic of 1857, in magni- 
tude, will swallow up every other panic — the entire 
nineteen that have taken place since the establishment 
of old Childs' Bank— and yet Mr. Appleton thinks there 
is no serious cause for the crisis but the sugar spe- 
culation ! So do the City Fathers of New- York. Let 
me introduce a word here in their behalf. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



365 



The report of the Financial Committee on the Mayor's 
message should be framed. 

Oh! ye " Bunsbys !" Ye City Fathers! What re- 
flection ! "What wisdom ! 

I would argue with you, but fear from the tenor of 
your remarks that you will insist that the " Horse is 
eighteen feet high." I would argue with you, but 
cannot reason with your Johnsonian logic, that " He 
who drives fat oxen must himself be fat." 

"In 1837," you say, "the whole country was im- 
poverished." 

" That then the South was bankrupt." 

" That our foreign debt is less to-day than at that 
time !" 

" That the immense surplus productions from the 
harvest of the North — hitherto unknown? — will pay all 
our Northern debts." 

Examine closely these points. Each reader of the 
report has already answered them, proving how slight 
the fabric upon which their argument is based. 

They say that "the gold and silver production has 
averaged $150,000,000 a year for the last eleven 
years /" 

Have the City Fathers forgotten that California only 
commenced to open her vaults (in quantity) in 1849 ? 
Eight years ago, instead of eleven! 



366 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Have the members of the Financial Committee also 
forgotten that Australia commenced her gold export 
in 1851 ? Six years ago, instead of eleven ! 

Why exaggerate ? It weakens — never strengthens — 
argument. 

" The . suspension of our banks is a most fortunate 
circumstance ; and we hope they will not resume till 
they are beyond the necessity of another suspension !" 

Mirabile dictu ! Why, if one suspension is fortu- 
nate, another would be more furtunate, according to 
their reasoning. 

"If a man who oysters cries 
Cries not when his father dies, 
'Tis a sign that he had rather 
Have an oyster than his father !" 

Again: — "Our. indebtedness amounts to little. 
: "Railroads comprise it, Now confine it to themselves, 
in the hands of their creditors, and nearly all of our 
debt is l wiped out /' " 

Are the City Fathers aware that our railways are 
interwoven with almost every interest in the country ? 
Is it not "so nominated in the bond?" 

Listen again to " Bunsby." 

" Another erroneous idea is, that luxurious living, 
extravagant dressing, splendid turn-outs, and fine 
horses, are the causes of distress to a nation !" 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 367 

Have the City Fathers forgotten the parable of the 
prodigal son? 

The money expended never existed. The bursting 
of the bubble proves it. 

They say that "the crisis is simply a panic." Twelve 
months later let them make another report. 

They say that the distress is "temporary." So was 
the Japanese treaty. 

They speak of labor in 1837. 

Are they aware that all these Park-brawling people 
(some three millions) were not in this country at that 
time ? 

Our City Fathers — like our city merchants and city 
bankers — are dwelling in the past. How many more 
times must I ask them to drop that crisis, and take 
up this ? They would make in the barn door a large 
hole for the old hen and small holes for the young 
chickens, and then make other holes for them to come 
out again ! They would put the candle to bed and 
blow themselves out ! They would place the clock in 
the cradle, and wind the baby up ! They dwell so 
much in the past, it makes them absent-minded. 

The fitful improvements in the money market— like 
the fire-fly on a summer eve — only makes the night 
the darker. A year hence the City Fathers should 
refer to the opinions which they have published to-day. 
The times are changing. 



368 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



Kamehameha IY. was taught sparring by Yankee 
Sullivan, and a missionary was invited to see fair play. 

Seventy-four thousand children were mutilated not 
long ago because the Sultan of Turkey wished to give 
eclat to the circumcision of his child. 

Brady has thrown Daguerre in the shade ; steam 
has shot past canvas, 

The stage coach is forgotten in the railway car. 

The Bank of England may slide into the Thames in 
company with the " Great Eastern." 

We are living in the age of telegraphs. We walk, 
we eat, we drink, we sleep by steam. High pressure 
everywhere — except in the financial reports of the City 
Fathers. 

Thorn's colossal statue of Washington in the Park, 
which for so long a time has been severely staring at 
the City Hall, with face of stately dignity, (?) has just 
been knocked down for two hundred dollars, to satisfy 
a five hundred dollar mortgage. The great Washington 
— going— going — gone — for only two hundred dollars ! 
What then can be the position of the merchant palaces 
and the fancy farms ? Are they, too, mortgaged ? Are 
we not entering an "interval of indefinite duration,' 5 
rather than "a mere temporary pressure?" 

In 1825, one-pound notes saved the Bank of Eng- 
land from suspending. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 369 

In 1847, Russell's letter, (which amounted to about 
the same thing,) prevented a stoppage. 

What will be done the next time? A Palmerston 
letter ? One pound notes again ? 

Perhaps not. The times are changing. 

England is a bundle of hay, and all the asses in 
the world are tugging at it — (wrote Byron). 

The Bank of England assisted the Bank of France 
in 1847 ; but when everything is expanded as it is 
now, if they go to kiting again, they will kite them- 
selves ashore. The Bank of England dare not let the 
leading houses fall ; they are too deeply involved. 
Gurney gave the directors one hour to decide, in 
1847. " Assist me," said he, " or I put up my shutters." 

Littledale, of Liverpool, was equally decided. 

Lombard, Broad, and Threadneedle Streets, must 
hang upon the Old Lady. A strong swimmer can carry 
his wife, and perhaps save his children ; but when 
cousins, uncles and aunts, friends and acquaintances 
catch hold upon him, down he sinks. The Bank can 
stand much, but not everything. 

" Plenty of ships, and plenty of houses ; the best se- 
curity. Why not draw?" said Mr. W. to Mr. B., in 
1837. "True," replied Mr. B. to 'Mr. W., "but as 
ships and houses won't meet our acceptances, we, 
therefore, endure our previous instructions." 

16* 



870 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

India is a bad customer. The whole system is rot- 
ten. Piracy, mutiny, and crime. Cimmerian darkness 
couldn't have been worse. Famine in wheat and rice 
stares the natives in the face, and rotting potatoes are 
already making the Irishman speak with a modified 
brogue. 

" Be assured that this is not a sudden temporary 
danger, to be repelled by sudden temporary exertion. 
What at first was a mutiny, has become a Revolution. 
Be assured that the military institutions of this coun- 
try, managed as they now are, are insufficient perma- 
nently to supply the number of men required to re- 
conquer what we have lost, and to hold our empire 
hereafter in security." These words were written by 
Lord Ellenborough, October 16, just three weeks ago, 
and the noble Earl is one of the cleverest men in 
England, and understands Indian affairs better than 
any man in it, not excepting Lord Dalhousie. 

Observe another point in his able letter to the Winch- 
comb Agricultural Association : — 

" Do you imagine that the great military powers 
of Europe, always prepared for war, offended by our 
pride, resentful of our former victories, and coveting 
our present wealth, would long permit us to enjoy in 
peace the luxuries we cling to, and the dreams of 
irresistible strength in which we fortuitously indulge ?" 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 371 

The Indian Company have three armies and three 
Presidencies to manage, "besides two outside enemies — 
the climate and the roads. 

" I have two officers that can be depended upon," 
said Nicholas, during the Crimean war — " G-eneral 
Janvier and General Fevrier." 

But the former proved a traitor. In the month of 
January, the Emperor of Russia was placed in the 
tomb of Peter and of Catherine. 

' I saw his room at the palace, just as he had left 
it — bed, clothes, military desk, untouched. No osten- 
tation, no extravagance, no Fifth Avenue luxury ; every- 
thing as plain as a peasant's habitation. 

India is a bad customer. Many expect more favor- 
able news by the coming mail. I hope it may be so. 

Delhi may fall, but the, effect will disappoint the 
well-wishers of India. Let the army rescue the Eu- 
ropeans in small stations, who tremble for their fold ; 
and, when the force is strong enough, attack Delhi, 
and march in a body through the Sepoy camps — but 
not before. Take it now, and the mutineers rash out 
by the Jumna and scatter throughout the land, rush- 
ing on such places as Lucknow, Agra, &c. The 
Sepoys are righting for life. A highwayman, in des- 
peration, may sometimes kill a dozen policemen. One 
regiment is nothing — a dozen will make another im- 



372 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

pression. Remember the Indian's silent example of 
concentration of forces. The single stick he snapped 
in twain — the bunch could not be broken. The fall 
of Delhi would only be the first chapter in the war ; 
the last — the fall of India, without American assis- 
tance. 

" Look to the East, where Ganges' swarthy race 
Shall shake your tyrant empire to its base ; 
Lo ! there Rebellion rears her ghastly head, 
And glares the Nemesis of native dead ; 
'Till Indus rolls a purpurea! flood, 
And claims his long arrear of Northern blood." 

What would Byron have said when listening to the 
tragedy of Cawnpore ? 

England never discounts danger, although the Stock 
Exchange generally (not this time) anticipates bad 
news. A lion well represents the national character 
of the English people. They are a nation of braves. 
Hence, they are not aroused by minor events. Hav- 
ing lived and moved under a flag of peace for forty 
years, they couldn't imagine such a thing as war with 
Russia. When Baron Bruno w left London, up went 
the funds. 

Like the Ashburton Treaty, the miserable affair at 
Naples, they thought as then that the Pen would prove 
more powerful than the Sword. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 873 

Arbitration failed. Then came battles, and their usual 
companions, loans ; but not till the Income Tax was 
doubled, and the English people realize that England 
was really at war with Russia. 

What did they care about the Holy Places ? 

The Crimean war taking place just after the Cali- 
fornian and Australian gold discoveries, upset the cal- 
culations of Commerce, confused all kinds of Trade — - 
false entries, false shipments, false business had to be 
made, to keep up fictitious values. 

The merchant bought the purse with his last shil- 
ling. The bottom dropped out of the tub. The credit 
system was worked down to the last penny. The 
house was too heavy for the foundation. The ship was 
crank. Like the nude man trying to hold up the big 
clock under Tiffany's, the weight was beyond his 
strength. Who wonders that his legs were bent ? 

The candle was not only lighted at both ends, but 
was blazing in the middle. The warehouses were too 
grand — like their owners, there was an upper story 
to let. 



374 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 



England must square up and commence again : 

Europe must balance the hooks: 

Asia must open a Bank and a counting-house, or 
Saxon hankers and Saxon merchants will do it for her : 

America must go to work once more : — 

These are some of the points for contemplation. 



Buy Cuba, or it will be stolen. " America should do 
with Cuba what Russia will do with Constantinople — 
take it, and ask permission afterwards," was a remark 
I heard at St. Petersburg. Purchase Cuba and keep 
the people honest. Central America must be taken 
care of, any way, whether Government winks at it or 
not. (Walker is off again — no mistake this time.) 

The Pacific Railroad must be built, as a national 
necessity. Brigham Young must be watched ; and 
the workmen furnished with the means of sustaining 
life. England must not be allowed to lose India. 
America must stand by the grand old land of Alfred, 
of Shakspeare, and the Queen of Queens — Victoria 

Napier well represents his nation. He will shortly 
ask us for some troops. "Ask, and ye shall receive." 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 375 

Americans are better soldiers than Hessians, or Swiss 
and Italian legions. 

The pro-and-anti-slavery men, having been charg- 
ing wind-mills some thirty years, like Don Q,uixotte, 
ought to be tossed up in a blanket, as he was tossed, 
and then let the question be quietly put to rest for 
a few years, just to see how it would seem. The 
country is tired of hearing anything more about 
your " Bloody Kansas." 

Suppose little Switzerland gets hard pushed by-and- 
by ; without breaking "Washington's advice on non- 
intervention, how would a little brotherly sympathy 
injure the cause of freedom? 

Lafayette represented the principle during the Rev- 
olution. 

Congress has something else to occupy its atten- 
tion next session besides the Blacks. The North and 
South will have something better to do than rap 
each other over the head in the Senate. The Whites 
demand a hearing. Toombs mus'nt talk disunion — we 
will have no more of that — and Seward, one of the 
ablest men in the Senate, I trust will let his " bleeding 
Kansas" bleed awhile. 'Twill do her good. In March, 
1855, he talked sense ; his voice was prophetic. His 
speech warned the people "of approaching danger. I 
endorse it all — but his Protective hobby. 



376 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

1856, 1859 and 1860 will be passed in clearing 
away the rubbish of previous years. A bankrupt law 
for honest men will do it. Then the country will 
shoot ahead again, while the Old World looks on and 
wonders, remarking, "What a strange people ! " Touch- 
ing our obligations to Europe, I would suggest " that we 
assume a virtue if we have it not." Issue no more 
"promises to pay" — but pay. 

Demosthenes said, action — action — action. Danton, 
when ringing the same changes, said it was audace— 
audace—audace. Bulwer, the other day, at the Scot- 
tish University, said it was enthusiasm — enthusiasm — 
enthusiasm. But with the American the cry should 
be honesty — honesty — honesty — and the country will soon 
have recovered from her confinement. With honesty 
for the physician, economy the nurse, industry the 
housekeeper, and good nature throughout the hall, the 
country must surely recover from having given birth 
to this, its sixth financial abortion. Practice honesty, 
and Diogenes would have no use for his lantern. As 
it is, his search would be almost fruitless, although 
the streets are lighted with gas. 

Cain killed his brother Abel, but whom did he marry ? 

Solomon had ten times as many concubines as Brig- 
ham Young, lived a riotous life, and then gave us the 
Proverbs— the fruits of his experience- — to guide the 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 377 

young American along the steep and slippery path, of 
life. Moses, after taking away the jewels, slew an 
Egyptian and hid him in the sand. (Professor Web- 
ster was hanged for a crime no worse.) David kindly 
placed Uriah at the head of the army. Napoleon 
made Marshal St. Arnaud Greneral-au-Chef in the Cri- 
mea for another purpose. 

The elders were behind the wall. What for ? " Su- 
sanna, don't you cry ! " 

Samson lost his strength with his heard. Young 
America, take the hint ; don't get shaved. 

Mrs. Potiphar should also have been placed in the 
" lock up," while LoVs family should have been cast 
into the sea. 

(If the "Woodman" had "spared that tree," when 
the "Caroline" went over the Falls, would it not have 
been better for public morals, than to have thrown it 
in the fiery Furniss of public indignation ?) 

Bad as is our age, theirs was far worse. Young 
America can improve upon the morals of those old 
men. 

It would seem to me that painters could have se- 
lected some more ennobling subjects from out of the 
inspired pages to ornament the walls of European pa- 
laces. 

The Old Masters have prostituted their great talents 



378 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET* 

in representing immorality and vice, instead of honesty 
and virtue. 

The Christian religion was not intended to be por- 
trayed in this manner. Nothing is more sublime — 
more grand— than to trace its history. Judaism was 
the caterpillar — slimy, filthy and unclean — out of which 
sprang the beautiful butterfly of our faith. 

Asiatics and Africans adopt our vices, but our vir- 
tues are the Drummond lights of the Christian reli- 
gion, which seldom penetrate the Black Hole of the 
heathen mind. 

Each age improves upon that which went before. 
The "Young American" of our time may well aston- 
ish his grandfather. The parents should feel proud of 
the progress of their child. Each generation should 
embody all the good points of those that have preceded 
them, and try and throw away the bad. The Young 
Americans of to-day must govern the countrv in the 
next generation. Therefore, they should study, work, 
improve themselves by untiring application. 

Cobbett said, "he never remembered the time in 
which he did not earn his own living." " Early ris- 
ing, habitual temperance, unrelaxing industry," was the 
old man's advice to all young men. "When Constable 
& Co. failed, during the panic of 1825, Walter Scott's 
liabilities amounted to $600,000. "Give me time, and 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 379 

I'll pay every farthing," said the " old man eloquent." 
He was as good as his word. At fifty-five years of 
age he went to work again and paid every penny of 
his obligations. (Two years afterwards he announced 
himself as the author of " Waverly.") Samuel John- 
son learned a language after he was sixty. Byron 
wrote Don Juan at twenty-four. Robert Clive won 
the battle of Plassey at twenty-six. William Pitt was 
Premier of England at twenty- three. Torquato Tasso 
wrote the Jerusalem Delivered at twenty-one ; and 
Napoleon was Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army 
of Italy at twenty-seven. 

I have only mentioned these names as a plea for 
young men. Let the old remember that they once 
were young. Let the merchant reward his faithful 
clerk, and encourage him with something more sub- 
stantial than good advice and promises. The good ad- 
vice is most acceptable, but back it up with some 
good, generous act. 

I hope I have said nothing in these pages to injure 
the feelings of any man, and trust that I have pro- 
perly explained to " Old America " the reason why I 
have so suddenly become a " Young Fogy." 

Born beneath the shade of Faneuil Hall, New Eng- 
land's rock- bound shores are very dear to me. Nurtured 
on the banks of the Mississippi, I can never forget the 



380 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

Sunny South ; and a traveler throughout our broad do- 
main, I hope that I have at least one friend in every 
State. Should any of you happen to meet him, give 
him a dollar, remembering at the same time the lan- 
guage which Marmion addressed to Chester. 

When sky-rockety views, written in a sky-rockety man- 
ner, are published at a sky-rockety time, the author runs 
some risk of catching a sky-rockety lecture. 

Commendation I cannot expect ; censure is more 
likely to reward a man for being honest in the ex- 
pression of his opinions. All can sneer ; few have the 
generosity to praise. Let a man speak above a whis- 
per, and down goes the hammer of conventionality. 
Dare to suggest, and hornets build a local habitation 
in your breeches. Open the debate with truth, and 
" buncombe " will close it with falsehood. My object 
has been, in penning these pages, to awaken, if possi- 
ble, a little reflection to our present condition and fu- 
ture prospects. I may have expressed myself warmly, 
but I have done it conscientiously, and with the best 
intention. 

And whereas, sundry individuals may insinuate that 
some egotism is thrown in the work, this deponent 
hereby admits the soft impeachment. I have a per- 
fect admiration of my opinions ; as the old lady said 
of her children, " Very commonplace, to be sure, but 



YOUNO AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 881 

nevertheless — -they are mine ! " Should I succeed in 
opening up a discussion on some of the questions 
which are of vital import to the nation, I shall feel 
amply repaid for any abuse that may be showered 
upon me. To say the least, as a matter of debate, 
there are two sides to every question. Prove me 
wrong, and I'll confess the error, 

I maintain that the more this question is discussed, 
the better it will be for the country . Making it an 
academic argument, there must be pros as well as cons. 
"With Wood " I bet on the bob- tail" against the favorite ; 
and although, perhaps, standing alone, on all principles of 
the ring I have a right to demand fair play, — argu- 
ment, facts, figures — instead of assertion, abuse, ridicule. 

Like John Phoenix, I can only say that, should I 
have offended any one by my style of writing, as I am 
not at heart a proud man, I am perfectly willing to 
accept his apology. 

Address :— 

YOUNG- AMERICA, 

Threadneedle Street. 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 383 



The Author's Compliments 

To the Members of the Press : 

Hopes to have the Pleasure, fyc. 



"When the Herald, with Trumpet toned voice, does 
me the honor to announce from the Tribune a book for 
the Times, the Sentinel, I trust, will raise the Ban- 
ner of the Young- American, while the News will Des- 
patch the Intelligence to the Toivn, the Country, the 
City, the State, the Union, and the World. The Clip- 
per Traveler will Record in his Journal how a Youth 
was criticised in the Gazette for being too Independent 
in discussing the questions connected with the Plough, 
the Loom, and the Anvil — and how a generous Harper,' 
a Christian Advocate, a Protestant Churchman, and 
Catholic Emancipator, came to his assistance as the 
Merchants and Bankers Magazine was about to blow 
him up in the Balloon, charge him in the Day-Book 



B84 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET, 

and Ledger, and cast unkind reflections on him in the 
Mirror, 

A Rambler, a Spectator, and a Monitor in Wall street, 
he could not be an Idlerj so rushed to the Press with 
a Leader for the Overland Mail to spread about the 
Globe. 

A Commercial retrospect, a Financial summary, a 
Current glance at Prices, and a fair Market Report, 
he thought would help the Inquirer and the reflecting 
Observer to Chronicle the changes that the Crisis has 
occasioned in the Shipping, the Commerce, and the 
Trade of the Country. If the Critic will Register 
a fair Transcript of the Opinions of the Press, the 
Author will not regret that he has made bold to play 
the Diogenes in holding the Lantern, with the honest 
hope that free discussion may throw some little Light 
upon this speculative Ag'e. He does not profess to be 
a Political Economist, although he has endeavored to 
be a fair Examiner of our financial Atlas, in giving 
a brief Review, first, of the rise in the Thermometer, 
and the sudden change in the Mercury, with the hope 
of turning an honest Picayune by an Illustrated view 
of a Pictorial subject for the Atheneum. 

An admirer of Punch (without taking it), he has 
tried to keep up with the Spirit of the Times, never 
signing the Temperance Pledge, or taking any Bell (es) 
Life, 



YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 385 

In conclusion, he hopes that some bright particu- 
lar Star, when noting the observations of the Sun, will 
say a kind word for the revolving Planet, without 
cutting' off the entire tail of the Comet; and would 
respectfully request that a Letter might be sent by the 
next Mail, to every Wliig, Democrat, Know-Nothing, 
and Native American in the Union, adding that the 
Train has arrived in the States from the Old World, 
a good Patriot and a True Republican ; and being a 
native-born Citizen, he maintains that he has a perfect 
right to discuss any question touching the interests 
of the Nation, or write on any subject that may be 
unfurled under the 

FLAG OF OUR UNION. 
17 



386 YOUNG AMERICA IN WALL-STREET. 

From the Edinburgh Review. 

(Only Notice Received.) 

" There are many things in this book which are good and many 
things which are new ; but the things which are good are not new, 
and the things which are new are not good." (Et tit, Sydney ?) 



*** Note. — The Author's apology for any inaccuracies that may ap- 
pear in this edition is, that the volume has been prepared, printed, and 
published in ten days time. 



I intended to have added my Russian correspondence to the Lon- 
don Times, but as this volume has already extended beyond my first 
intention, I must pass it by, although I should have liked to have 
introduced the statistics of Russian commerce contained therein. 

New-Yore, November 10, 1857. 



APPENDIX. 

[From the American Railroad Journal, N. Y.] 

TABULAE STATEMENT 

SHOWING THE NUMBER OF MILES OF RAILROAD IN OPERATION IN THE 
UNITED STATES, JANUARY 1ST, 1857. 

ROADS. 

CALIFORNIA. MUeS. RHODE-ISLAND. MiUs. 

Sacramento Valley 21 Stonington , 50 

Providence, Hartford, & Fishkill 32 
Providence and Bristol 14 

FLORIDA. 

Florida 35 Total 96 

St. Mark's and Tallahassee 26 

■ MISSOURI. 

Total.. 61 Pacific 125 

North Missouri 20 

texas. Hannibal and St. Joseph 75 

Buffalo Bay, Brazos, and Colo- St. Louis and Iron Mountain. . . 25 

rado. 40 

Galveston, Houston, and Hen- Total 245 

derson- 31 

_ IOWA. 

Total 71 Dubuque and Pacific 25 

Rock Island and Muscatine. ... 20 

Mississippi and Missouri 88 

Delaware. Burlington and Missouri 50 

Newcastle and Frenchtown. ... 16 Des Moines Valley 38 

Wilmington Branch 6 Keokuk and Dubuque 25 

Delaware 71 Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska . . 20 

Total 93 Total 266 



388 



APPENDIX. 



LOUISIANA. Miles. 

Carrolton 6 

Clinton and Port Hudson 24 

Lake Pontchartrain 6 

Mexican Gulf. 27 

New-Orleans, Jackson, and 

Northern. 88 

New-Orleans and Opelousas. . . 80 
Vicksburgh and Shreveport .... 20 

Total.... . ...251 

KENTUCKY. 

Covington and Lexington 93 

Lexington and Frankfort. ... . 29 

Louisville and Frankfort 65 

Maysville and Lexington 19 

Louisville and Nashville 45 

Lexington and Big Sandy 20 

Lexington and Danville . . 15 

Total 286 

MISSISSIPPI. 

Raymond . - 7 

St. Francis and WoodviHe 28 

Vicksburg and Brandon . . 60 

Mobile and Ohio 138 

Mississippi Central 75 

New-Orleans, Jackson, and 

Great Northern 34 

Memphis and Charleston 35 

Mississippi and Tenessee 36 

Total........... 413 

ALABAMA. 

Montgomery and West Point. . 88 
Mobile and Ohio . . . . 62 

Memphis and Charleston ...... 145 



ALABAMA Cont. Mihs. 

Alabama and Tennessee River. . 80 

Girard 29 

Opelica 30 

Alabama and Mississippi . .... 20 

Total 454 

VERMONT. 

Connecticut and Passumpsic. . . 61 

Rutland and Burlington 119 

Vermont Central 166 

Rutland and Washington 12 

Vermont Valley 24 

Bennington Branch 6 

Western Vermont 53 

Whitehall and Rutland 13 

Atlantic and St. Lawrence 17 

Total.. 471 

NEW-JERSEY. 

Belvidere and Delaware 64 

Burlington and Mount Holly ... 6 

Camden and Amboy 98 

Morris and Essex 51 

New- Jersey 3t 

New- Jersey Central 64 

Trenton Branch 6 

Union 33 

Flemington Branch 12 

Camden and Atlantic. 60 

Millstone Branch 6 

Warren 18 

Sussex 12 

Jamesburgh Branch 11 

Bloomfield Branch 6 

Total...... .......... ...478 



APPENDIX, 



389 



Maine, Miles. 

Androscoggin and Kennebec. . . 55 
Atlantic and St. Lawrence., .. .150 

Buckfield Branch 18 

Bangor and Piscataquis 12 

Kennebec and Portland 65 

Bath Branch. . 9 

Portland, Saco, and Portsmouth 51£ 

Calais and Baring lis- 

Machiasport 3 

York and Cumberland 18 

Androscoggin 20 

Penobscot and Kennebec 55 

Kennebec and Somerset 37 

Total .....510 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

Raleigh and Gaston 87 

Wilmington and Weldon 162 

North Carolina Central 228 

Weldon and Ridgway 25 

North Carolina and Atlantic ... 30 

Total ...533 



TENNESSEE. 

East Tennessee and Georgia. . . 110 

Memphis and Charleston 106 

Nashville and Chattanooga 159 

East Tennessee and Virginia . . 50 

Tennessee and Alabama '. 28 

Memphis and Ohio 56 

McMinnville Branch 35 

Total......... 544 



MARYLAND. Miles . 

Annapolis and Elkridge 21 

Baltimore and Ohio. 379 

Washington Branch 38 

Frederick Branch 3 

Baltimore and Susquehanna. . . 57 

Westminster Branch 9 

Various Coal roads 53 



Total. 



557 



WISCONSIN. 

Milwaukee and Mississippi. ... 190 

Watertown Branch 30 

Milwaukee and Chicago 40 

Beloit and Madison 20 

Milwaukee and La Crosse 95 

Rock River Valley 30 

Milwaukee and Horicon 30 

Racine and Mississippi 72 

Mineral Point 32 

Kenosha and Beloit 20 



Total. 



559 



NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 

Boston, Concord, and Montreal. 93 

Cocheco 28 2 

Concord 35 

Contocook Valley 25 

Great Falls and Conway 20 

Manchester and Lawrence 26J 

Northern 82 

Portsmouth and Concord 47 

Sullivan 26 

Wilton 15 

Cheshire. 54 

Ashuelot. ,., 23 



390 



APPENDIX. 



NEW-HAMPSHIRE Cont. MiUs. 

Eastern 16| 

White Mountain 20 

Boston and Maine 39f- 

Merrimac & Connecticut Rivers 58 

Total „ .609*. 

MICHIGAN. 

Central 234 

Southern 212 

Detroit and Milwaukee 80 

Erie and Kalamazoo. 33 

Detroit and Toledo 45 

Total 604 

CONNECTICUT. 

Hartford and New-Haven 62 

Hartford, Providence, & Fishkill 76 

Housatonic 98 

Middletown Branch 11 

Naugatuck 62 

New Haven Canal 62 

New-London, Willimantic and 

Palmer 66 

New-Haveri and New-London. . 50 
Norwich and Worcester, . ..... 66 

New-York and New-Haven. ... 76 

Danbury and Nor walk 24 

Total , 653 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

South Carolina 242 

Greenville and Columbia. . ... 165 
Charlotte and South Carolina. . 109 
Kings Mountain 22 



SOUTH CAROLINA — Cont. Miles. 

Laurens 32 

Wilmington and Manchester. . . 171 

North-eastern 50 

Spartanburgh and Union 20 

Total 811 

GEORGIA. 

Central 191 

Georgia 171 

Macon and Western J 01 

Western and Atlantic 138 

South western 72 

Rome Branch 20 

Muscogee 70 

Atlanta and West Point ... 8t 

Milledgeville 17 

Eaton and Milledgeville 21 

Wilkes County 18 

Athens Branch. . 40 

Waynesboro'. 51 

Warrentown Branch 4 

Brunswick and Florida 35 

Total 1,030 

VIRGINIA. 

Richmond and Danville 142 

Richmond and Petersburg 22 

Cover Hill... 11* 

South Side 133 

Manasses Gap 74 

Petersburg and Roanoke 60 

Seaboard and Roanoke 80 

Winchester and Potomac 32 

Virginia Central, including Blue 
Ridge 171 



APPENDIX. 



391 



Virginia — Cont. Miles. 

Virginia and Tennessee 205 

Orange and Alexandria 97 

Richmond, Fredericksburg, and 

Potomac 76 

Greenville and Roanoke 21 

Roanoke Valley 22 

Salt Works Branch 9 

North- Western 104 

Total. , .1, 259^ 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Berkshire 21 

Boston and Lowell ... 28 

Boston and Maine 44^ 

Boston and Providence 55^- 

Stoughton Branch 4 

Boston and Worcester 68 

Cape Cod 68 

Dorchester and Milton 4 

Eastern 60 

Essex (Salem to Lawrence). ... 21 

Fitchburg 69 

Fitchburg and Worcester 14 

Lowell and Lawrence 12^- 

Nashua and Lowell 15 

New Bedford and Taunton 21 

Newburypoit 27& 

Old Colony and Fall River 88 

Peterboro and Shirley 14 

Pittsfield and N. Adams 19 

Providence and Worcester 43|- 

South Shore l\\ 

Stoney Brook 13 

Western (Boston to Albany). ...117 

Worcester and Nashau 467 

Vermont and Massachusetts. ... 77 
Housatonic Branch 11 



MASSACHUSETTS Cont. Miles* 

South Reading Branch 9 

Salem and Lowell 17 

Georgetown. 14 

Grand Junction 9^- 

Harvard Branch 1 

Lexington and West Cambridge 7 

Boston and New- York Central . 74^ 

Medway Branch 3§- 

Saugus Branch S\ 

South Reading Branch 8 

West Stockbridge 3 

Connecticut River 52 

Charles River Branch 9 

Stockbridge and Pittsfield 22 

Danvers 9 

Danvers and Georgetown. . . : . . 12i 

Agricultural 15 

Amherst and Belcherton 20 

Easton Branch 4 

Fairhaven Branch 15 

Hampshire and Hamden 25 

Merboro' Branch 4 

Middleboro' and Taunton 8 

Total 1318 

INDIANA. 

Columbus and Shelby ville 24 

Evansville and Crawfordsville. .109 

Tndiana Central 72 

Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and 

Cleveland 84 

Jeffersonville 77 

Lafayette and Indianapolis 64 

Madison and Indianapolis 86 

Martinsville 27 

New Albany and Salem ... . . 288 



B92 



APPENDDL 



Indiana — Cont. Miles. 
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and 

Chicago , 65 

Cincinnati and Chicago ... 65 

Peru and Indianapolis 73 

Shelby ville and Knightstown. . . 27 

Shelbyville Branch 16 

Shelbyville and Rushville 20 

Terre Haute and Richmond. . * . 73 
Michigan Southern and North- 
ern Indiana. a 183 

Ohio and Mississippi 1 72 

Michigan Central 40 

Indianapolis and Cincinnati. ... 90 

Toledo and Illinois 167 

Northern Indiana 50 

Cincinnati, Pennsylvania, and 
Chicago 29 

Total 1,901 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

Alleghany Portage 36 

Beaver Meadow. 36 

Carbondale and Honesdale 24 

Columbia and Philadelphia 82 

Westchester Branch 9 

Corning and Blossburg 36 

Cumberland Valley 52 

Little Schuylkill , 28 

Mine Hill 12 

Pennsylvania. . , 4 247 

Philadelphia, Reading, and 

Pottsville 93 

Philadelphia and Norristown. . . 17 

Germantown Branch 6 

Philadelphia and Trenton.. .... 30 

Philadelphia, Wilmington, and 

Baltimore 99 



PENNSYLVANIA Cont. MiUs 

Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk. 8 

Williamsport and Elmira 78 

Franklin 22 

Dauphin and Susquehanna 59 

Chester Valley 22 

York and Cumberland 25 

Sunbury and Erie 27 

Delaware, Lackawanna, and 

Western 127 

Catawissa . . . „ 92 

Philadelphia and Westchester. . 27 
Pennsylvania Coal Company ... 47 

Columbia Branch 18 

Hanover Branch. . 13 

York and Wrights ville 13 

Lancaster and Harrisburg 37 

Erie and Cleveland 26 

North-east 19 

Indiana Branch . , 18 

Various Coal Roads 300 

Pittsburg and Connellsville. . * . 33 

Alleghany Valley 44 

North Pennsylvania. 33 

Philadelphia and Sunbury 29 

Lehigh Valley 45 

Broad Top Mountain 26 

Holidaysburg Branch 6 

Blairsville Branch. 3 

Lackawanna and Bloornsburg . . 24 
Lackawanna 9 

Total ...2041 

ILLINOIS. 

Chicago and St. Louis 220 

" and Rock Island 229 

" and Milwaukee 45 

Galena and Chicago Union 259 



APPENDIX, 



393 



Illinois — Cont. Miles. 

Great Western Illinois 148 

Illinois Central 704 

Illinois and Wisconsin 91 

Terre Haute and Alton, 215 

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy.138 

Peoria and Oquawka 152 

Ohio and Mississippi 147 

Michigan Central 10 

" Southern , 12 

Belleville and Illinoistown 15 

Joliet Cut-off 44£ 

Fox River Valley 42 

Northern Cross 100 



Total 2,571* 



NEW-YORK. 

Albany and West Stockbridge. . 38£ 

Buffalo and Niagara Falls 28 

Cayuga and Susquehanna 35 

Hudson and Boston 31t 

Hudson River 150 

Long Island 100 

New- York and Erie. . , 464 

New- York and Harlem 133 

Northern 122 

New-York Central 556 

New- York City roads 30 

Brooklyn City roads 30 

Watertown and Pottsdam 30 

Flushing 8 

Oswego and Syracuse 35 

Rensselaer and Saratoga 25 

Saratoga and Washington 53 

Saratoga and Schenectady 21 

Skaneateles and Jordan 5 



new-york — Cont. Miles. 

Corning and Blosburg 15 

Watertown and Rome 97 

Albany and Northern 33 

Buffalo and State line 69 

Buffalo and New- York City 92 

Buffalo, Corning, and New- York. 100 

Canandaigua and Elmira 64 

Plattsburg and Montreal 21 

Rutland and Washington 51 

Sackett's Harbor and Ellisburg. 18 

Troy and Boston 38 

Troy Union 2 

Canandaigua and Niagara Falls. 99 

Syracuse and Binghamton 18^- 

Genesee Valley 26 

Utica and Black River 35 

Troy and Rutland 17 

Niagara Falls and Lake Ontario. 13 



Total. 



,2757 



OHIO. 

Bellefontaine and Indiana 123 

Central Ohio 141 

Cleveland and Mahoning 67 

Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Day- 
ton 60 

Cleveland, Columbus, and Cin- 
cinnati 135 

Cincinnati, Wilmington, and 

Zanesville .... 132 

Cleveland, Painesville, and Ash- 
tabula 72 

Cleveland, Zanesville, and Cin- 
cinnati 61 

Cleveland and Pittsburgh 200 



17* 



394 



APPENDIX. 



ohio — Cont. Miles. 
Cleveland and Toledo, S. Divi- 
sion 72 

Cleveland and Toledo, N. Divi- 
sion 107 

Columbus and Xenia 55 

Columbus, Piqua, and Indiana. . 72 

Dayton and Michigan , . 28 

Dayton and Western 42 

Findlay Branch 16 

Greenville and Miami 47 

Hamilton, Eaton, and Rich- 
mond 45 

Carrolton Branch 20 

Iron 13 

Little Miami 84 

Mad River and Lake Erie 193 

Mansfield and Sandusky 56 

Newark and Mansfield 61 

Ohio and Pennsylvania 187 

Ohio and Mississippi 20 

Ohio and Indiana 131 

Scioto and Hocking Valley .... 56 

Dayton and Xenia 19 

Marietta, Hillsboro' and Cincin- 
nati * 193 

Steubenville and Indiana 124 

Springfield, Mt. Vernon, and 

Pittsburgh 50 

Springfield and London. ....... 20 

Toledo and Illinois 76 

Northern Indiana 72 

Total 2,850 



AGGREGATE IN THE UNITED STATES. 

States. Miles. 

California 21 

Florida 61 

Texas , 71 

Delaware 93 

Rhode Island 96 

Missouri 245 

Iowa 266 

Louisiana 251 

Kentucky 286 

Mississippi 413 

Alabama 454 

Vermont 471 

New- Jersey 478 

Maine 510 

North Carolina 533 

Tennessee 541 

Maryland 557 

Wisconsin 559 

New-Hampshire 609$ 

Michigan 636 

Connecticut 653 

South Carolina 811 

Georgia , 1,030 

Virginia 1,259$ 

Massachusetts 1,318$ 

Indiana 1,901 

Pennsylvania .2,041 

Illinois 2,571$ 

New- York 2,757 

Ohio , 2,850 

Total 24,310 



APPENDIX. 



395 



WEEKLY STATEMENTS 



CONDITION OF THE NEW-YORK CITY BANKS. 



YHQ11 SEPT. 20, 1856, TO NOV. 7, 1857. 















Actual 








Loans. 


Specie. 


Circulation. 


Deposits. 


Sept. 


20, 


'56. , 


, $109,715,435 


12,270,685 


8,760,385 


65,866,422 


Sept. 


27, 


'56. 


...108,992,205 


10,873,220 


8,665,193 


63,661,172 


Oct. 


4, 


'56.. 


,..107,961,707 


11,015,184 


8,330,628 


62,052,546 


Oct. 


Hi 


'56.. 


..107,147,392 


10,382,751 


8,748,930 


60,078,367 


Oct. 


18, 


'56.. 


..105,918,836 


10,847,010 


8,697,417 


60,304,883 


Oct. 


25, 


'56.. 


..104,156,483 


10,580,795 


8,649,802 


58,696,457 


Nov. 


1, 


'56.. 


..103,142,093 


11,057,675 


8,636,935 


58,024,115 


Nov. 


8, 


'56. . 


..102,503,639 


11,513,420 


8,946,721 


56,938,387 


Nov. 


15, 


'56.. 


..103,554,450 


12,258,722 


8,850,971 


58,942,050 


Nov. 


22, 


'56.. 


. .104,504,919 


12,971,868 


8.848,378 


60,154,121 


Nov. 


29, 


'56.. 


..105,536,476 


12,110,884 


8,610,256 


61,614,348 


Dec. 


6, 


'56.. 


..106,998,534 


12,278,847 


8,071,753 


62,823,968 


Dec. 


13, 


'56.. 


..108,335,580 


10,832,548 


8,516,854 


62,854,772 


Dec. 


20, 


'56.. 


..108,334,593 


11,151,310 


8,397,448 


66,265,756 


Dec. 


27, 


'56.. 


..108,527,429 


10,392,428 


8,387,167 


62,239,391 


Jan'y 


3, 


'57.. 


..109,149,153 


11,172,244 


8,602,113 


63,677,829 


Jan'y 


10, 


'57.. 


..116,150,234 


11,090,108 


8,328,395 


64,316,551 


Jan'y 


17, 


'57.. 


..110,860,401 


11,955,054 


8,047,065 


66,076,937 


Jan'y 


24, 


'57.. 


..111,094,415 


11,633,924 


7,879,027 


66,877,231 


Jan'y 


31, 


'57.. 


. .111,785,838 


12,191,325 


8,024,948 


67,241,670 


Feb. 


7, 


'57.. 


..112,876,713 


11,148,894 


8,426,817 


65,997,160 


Feb. 


14, 


'57.. 


..112,722,799 


10,497,832 


8,151,799 


55,fti8,490 


Feb. 


21, 


'57., 


..111,773,572 


10,432,158 


8,106,074 


65,098.895 


Feb. 


28, 


'57.. 


..111,137,717 


10,065,254 


8,159,275 


64,627,069 


March 


7, 


'57.. 


..111,399,649 


11,707,846 


8,465,457 


64,894,958 



396 






APPENDIX. 












NEW-YORK CITY BANKS— Continued. 
Loans. Specie. Circulation. 


Actual 
Deposits. 


March 14, 


'57.. 


$113,250,989 


11,077,732 


8,452,541 


66,694,525 


March 21, 


'57.. 


..113,443,692 


11,291,373 


8,494,238 


65,975,946 


March 28, 


'57... 


..112,884,025 


11,325,738 


8,473,829 


66,223,415 


April 


4, 


'57.. 


..114,833,902 


11,538,732 


8,812,325 


66,834,089 


April 


11, 


'57.. 


..115,374,717 


10,834,400 


8,787,344 


67,042,863 


April 


18, 


'57.. 


..114,398,174 


12,061,372 


8,770,823 


67,547,241 


April 


25, 


'57.. 


,..113,391,910 


11,827,861 


8,736,763 


67,068,424 


May- 


2, 


'57.. 


..114,409,275 


12,009,911 


9,006,566 


68,078,676 


May 


9, 


'57.. 


..115,068,822 


12,011,401 


9,182,733 


67,954,466 


May 


16, 


'57.. 


..114,620,042 


12,543,694 


8,935,297 


68,595,165 


May 


23, 


'57.. 


..114,049,103 


13,126,734 


8,738,025 


68,517,283 


May 


31, 


'57.. 


..114,049,633 


12,815,515 


8,696.692 


68,565,903 


June 


6, 


'57.. 


..115,338,502 


13,134,715 


8,838,573 


69,233,090 


June 


13, 


'57.. 


..115,412,541 


11,974,378 


8,696,893 


68,111,334 


June 


20, 


'57.. 


..115,119,690 


12,790,456 


8,593,801 


68,781,446 


June 


27, 


'57.. 


..115,015,504 


10,901,081 


8,505,065 


67,213,111 


July 


4, 


'57.. 


..115,044,303 


12,837,346 


8,901,590 


65,387,584 


July 


11, 


'57.. 


..116,028,618 


12,666,146 


8,693,578 


65,702,597 


July 


18, 


'57.. 


..117,365,321 


13,594,606 


8,443,838 


67,005,589 


July 


25, 


'57.. 


..118,848,131 


12,956,855 


8,528,814 


67,377,055 


Aug. 


1, 


"57.. 


..120,597,050 


12,918,013 


8,665,422 


68,682,039 


Aug. 


8, 


'57.. 


. .122,077,252 


11,737,367 


8,981,740 


67,372,940 


Aug. 


15, 


'57., 


, .121,241,472 


11,360,645 


8,780,012 


66,814,931 


Aug. 


22, 


'57., 


...120,139,582 


10,097,178 


8,694,011 


64,241,471 


Aug. 


29, 


'57., 


...116,588,919 


9,241,376 


8,671,060 


59,690,311 


Sept. 


5, 


'57.. 


.112,221,365 


10,227,965 


8,673,192 


57,260,609 


Sept. 


12, 


'57., 


, . . 109,985,572 


12,181,857 


8,322,316 


57,334,121 


Sept. 


19, 


'57., 


, .108,777,421 


13,556,186 


8,073,801 


57,851,931 


Sept. 


26, 


'57.. 


..107,791,433 


13,327,095 


7,838,303 


56,918,863 


Oct. 


3, 


'57.. 


..105,935,499 


11,400,413 


7,916,102 


52,798,365 


Oct. 


10, 


'57.. 


..101,917,569 


11,476,294 


7,524,599 


48,745,176 


Oct. 


17, 


'57.. 


.. 97,245,826 


7,843,230 


8,087,441 


42,696,012 


Oct. 


24, 


'57.. 


.. 95,593,518 


10,411,643 


6,884,739 


47,873,900 


Oct. 


31, 


'57.. 


.. 95,317,754 


12,883,441 


6,334,748 


51,853,158 


Nov. 


7, 


'57., 


, . . 95,866,241 


16,492,152 


6,434,312 


56,424,973 



APPENDIX. 397 



STATEMENT 



CONDITION OF THE NEW-YORK CITY BANKS. 



7th NOVEMBER, 1857, 



Loans. 

America $4,559,400 

American Exchange. .6,076,493 

Artizans' 575,039 

Atlantic 495,335 

Broadway 1,686,936 

Bull's Head 203,616 

Butchers' 1,314,807 

Chatham 404,789 

Chemical 1,206,848 

City 1,829,618 

Citizens 521,889 

Commerce 10,970,275 

Commonwealth 889,897 

Continental. .■ 2,407,510 

Corn Exchange L353,112 

Dry Dock 361,017 

Fulton 1,346,872 

Greenwich 548,166 

Hanover 1 ,062,070 

Irving 613,426 

Importers' & Traders'. 1,696,2S3 

Leather 1,698,288 

Manhattan 4,390,177 

Merchants' 4,127,576 

Mechanics' 3,595,283 







Nominal 


Specie. 


Circulation. 


Deposits. 


1,085,119 


52,171 


4,421,435 


1,052,923 


120,885 


4,477,890 


62,626 


49,453 


183,749 


61,375 


95,323 


237,018 


241,332 


212,523 


1,100,786 


30,394 


124,030 


132,992 


81,213 


138,050 


713,733 


32.932 


90,747 


162,502 


575,461 


186,856 


1,525,191 


597,958 


17,154 


1,953,800 


73,916 


131,256 


340,286 


2,009,656 


2,095 


5,777,137 


118,151 


45,773 


768,342 


493,490 


98,413 


1,553,235 


146,719 


91,515 


1,133,674 


57,080 


39,354 


125,917 


253,575 


90,968 


1,255,410 


118,211 


110,769 


455,751 


98,473 


55,953 


585,460 


121,379 


93,659 


425,561 


229,542 


102,907 


794,401 


289,922 


250,107 


1,383.413 


638,291 


329,037 


3,485,622 


1,204,013 


284,624 


3,813,063 


391,206 


341,099 


2,655,067 



398 APPENDIX 

NEW- YORK CITY BANKS^Continued. 

Nominal 

Loans. Specie. Circulation. Deposits. 

Merchants' Exchange.1,612,740 153,900 87,169 1,015,779 

Mechanics' & Traders. 639,723 86,406 109,684 342,765 

Metropolitan. ..... . .5,431,484 731,413 238,926 4,271,398 

Market 1,398,693 131,372 160,650 863,857 

Marine 745,636 63,687 59,507 382,974 

Mercantile 1,573,383 272,395 43,984 1,304,795 

New- York 3,270,270 547,627 353,023 2,132,132 

National 1,783,223 543,053 • 117,907 1,138,211 

North America ,1,395,886 202,200 38,955 1,162,160 

Nassau 1,079,236 157,967 75,919 670,312 

New-York Exchange . 223,141 35,129 96,361 162,762 

New- York County .. . 266,519 34,808 99,200 132,811 

Oriental 424,818 62,237 103,149 244,207 

Park 2,687,754 350,592 110,965 1,520,128 

Phenix 2,739,546 577,719 79,597 2,158,816 

Ocean 1,148,915 165,221 71,724 683,353 

Pacific 803,794 113,079 114,219 551,046 

People's 488 ,295 46,097 97,678 237,265 

Republic 3,308,925 393,910 87,666 2,514,173 

Seventh Ward 891,099 249,175 113,936 562,070 

State 3,440,350 503,632 431,308 2,595,795 

St. Nicholas 791,677 - 55,704 91,299 345,446 

Shoe and Leather.... "2,371, 633 419,143 106,271 2,117,530 

Tradesmen's 1,166,251 102,627 297,193 575,902 

Union 2,248,508 430,102 93,301 1,737,652 

Total $95,866,241 16,492,152 6,434,312 68,884,773 



YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD 



LIFE IN BENGAL, CALCUTTA, SINGAPORE, JAYA, HONG-KONG, 
EGYPT, THE CRIMEA, AND AUSTRALIA. 

A SERIES OF LETTERS TO FRIENDS AT HOME. 

BY GEORGE FRANCIS TRAIN, OF BOSTON. 

Post Svo. Cloth, 8s. 6d. 

SAMPSON, LOWE & CO., LONDON. 
GEO. P. PUTNAM, NEW-YORK. 



©PINIONS OF THE E^GLB^Iff PRESS. 

This volume, which is one of the most useful books of travel that 
have recently come under our notice, is composed of a series of letters, 
written during the author's travels, and vividly conveying his expres- 
sions, fresh as he received them. They are not the productions of 
one who has travelled and noted down his experience as a matter of 
pleasure, or for the sake of becoming the author of a book. * * * 

He is a young American merchant, intellectual and highly intelligent, 
and his chief purpose has been to consider the commercial capabilities 
and resources of the countries through which he passed. His quali- 
fications for such a task are sufficiently guaranteed by the fact, that he 
established the well-known house that; bears his name, at Melbourne, 
with which he is still connected, and that when he left the colony, 
after a residence of thirty-two months, he was honored by a compli- 
mentary dinner by the bankers and merchants of Melbourne. His 
book will be found as interesting from its details of the Chinese, as it 
is valuable for its statistics of Australia. The volume is, as we have 
said, composed of the correspondence of a man of business; but that 
correspondence does not consist of mere dry mercantile observation 
and experience, but comprises a large variety of interesting information 
and adventure. — London Weekly Times. 



400 "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD. 



* * * Mr. Train went from Boston to Australia in 1853, to estab- 
lish a mercantile house at Melbourne, where he remained about two 
years and a half. After this period of strenuous and successful appli- 
cation, Mr. Train planned a pleasure tour, not without an eye to busi- 
ness — the route being Batavia and Java, Singapore, Hong Kong, 
Canton, Shanghai, Penang, Madras, Calcutta, Bombay, and to En- 
gland by the overland route. All this and more he accomplished, and 
has written a narrative of what he saw in his travels, remarkable for 
shrewdness of observation and independence of opinion. At several 
places during his journey he was fortunate in being present when 
events of public importance were passing. He was at Calcutta when 
Lord Dalhousie gave up his Indian Vice-royalty to Lord Canning. He 
was too late for the fall of Sebastopol, but he visited all the memora- 
ble scenes of the siege while the scars and ruins of war were yet recent. 
The comments on English political affairs, as well as on our social 
usages, and also the life and manners of the various countries which 
he visited, will be read with interest, as being the genuine opinions of 
an intelligent American merchant, and not the artificially prepared 
statements of a profesional writer. 

It is an original and remarkable book of travels. — Literary Ga- 
zette. 

** * These letters, describing the rise and progress of Australian 
Trade, and chronicling from month to month the political events of 
an important year in colonial history, are decidedly the most valuable 
part of the book. Mr. Train is known to the American public as 
"■ Young America abroad." 

His sympathies are liberal, and as a colonist, he belonged to the ex- 
treme independent party ; but his letters do not display much anti- 
English feeling. — Economist. 

The author of this amusing and really instructive volume is a mem- 
ber of the well-known American commercial firm of the same name, 
and he appears to be an accomplished as well as an intelligent mer- 
chant. 

He established a business at Melbourne in 1853, where he had am- 
ple means of making himself acquainted with the extraordinary rise 
and progress of the colony of Victoria, and he has since carried on 
perhaps as large a trade with that colony as any single establishment 
in the world. 

His book is the first to break ground in what his editor designates 
" Commercial Literature." But the general reader must not for a 
moment suppose that it is confined to commercial transactions, or that 
"profit and loss " are summed up on every page; on the contrary, it is 
infused with a rare intelligence — it is full of facts which are most dim- 



OPINIONS OP THE ENGLISH PRESS. 40l 



cult of access to ordinary writers — it abounds with valuable statistical 
details, as well as lively and accurate descriptions of places and per- 
sons, and it is not unrelieved by occasional flashes of wit of no com- 
mon order. The opportunities enjoyed by the author were rare, and 
he did not neglect them. Under these circumstances there can be no 
hesitation on the part of the critic in recommending, most cordially, 
Young America Abroad to the good will of the English public at 
home. — London Observer. 

* - * Mr. Train is not of that variety of travellers who can wend 
from Dan to Beersheba and find all barren. He is no smell-fungus. 
He has sharp observation, and wit to match, and is always good-tem- 
pered and pleasing. * * * * We leave this lively gossippingto readers 
who like to be amused and instructed without troubling themselves. 
As traveller and writer the author may be characterized as being con- 
tinually en Train. — London Athenceum. 

Mr Train is an American, and the " go-ahead" energy of his pen 
indicates the character of a man who would stick at nothing to seethe 
world, gain information, and amass money in a fair spirit of enter- 
prise. The volume he has given us consists of a series of rapidly, 
well-written letters, dictated amid the scenes they describe, and em- 
bodying a fund of information and shrewd observation, which show 
the writer to have been qualified, in no mean degree, for the wide tour 
which his adventures embrace, in lands far distant from his home.* * * 

Leaving Java, our traveller proceeded to Manilla; thence to China 
and Japan ; thence to Madras, Calcutta, Ceylon, and on to Aden ; 
up the Red Sea to Suez; over the desert to Cairo and Alexandria; thence 
to Constantinople, Sebastopol, and the Back Sea ports, all of which he 
visited with a laudable curiosity, and records his adventures and obser- 
vations with the rapidity of the telegraph. We could fill our columns 
with interesting quotations, but we must conclude with a hearty com- 
mendation of the Book to a general perusal. — London Herald. 

* * * The most valuable part of the book to an English reader are 
the letters describing the state and prospects of Victoria; for, although 
Australia has been described over and over again, the more informa- 
tion we get, the better for the intending colonist, especially from one 
who writes with American energy and feeling. * * * London Daily 
News. 

Mr Train, of Boston, had he included much of England, would have 
dwelt rather on Birmingham than Stratford. He is a young American 
merchant, who wrote letters home to American journals, when upon 
business expeditions, giving chiefly business views of what he 
saw. * * * 



402 



The book includes a valuable sketch of the commercial history of 
Melbourne. — London Examiner. 

Young America is personified in a an American merchant, who 
went from Boston to Australia, and established a very prosperous 
business there in 1853, with which he is still connected. During his 
residence of thirty-two months in the colony, he took a prominent 
and active part in all measures for the advancement of the colony, 
and, on his departure, was honored by a complimentary dinner by the 
colonists of Melbourne. The work is written in a bold style- — nothing 
seems to have escaped the inquiring mind of the author, and he de- 
scribes what he saw in a very original and spirited manner, far different 
from the hackneyed form in which dilettanti travellers record all their 
sayings and doings. * * * * Such are some few extracts from this 
really ably written work, which will repay a careful perusal. — Obser- 
ver. 

* * * The author of the book before us is a business man, and an 
American to boot. His observation is not confined to the Southern 
continent, for he extended his travels to Java, Singapore, China, 
Egypt, the Holy Land, the Crimea, &c, about all of which places he 
gives us something of value. His remarks upon China are interesting, 
as showing the American point of view. — London Express. 

* * * The interest of the book arises in part from the fact that the 
author is really a young American. We get his free and easy com- 
ments as he goes along, and on a variety of subjects which just now 
have a special interest for Englishmen : as China and the Chinese ; 
the Opium and Coolie trades; Calcutta and its inhabitants ; the 
official Anglo-Indian mind, so far as it can be seen on board a steamer; 
and the feelings of the different allies in the Crimea as expressed to 
an American stranger. * * * * Although the mind of Young America 
is somewhat too familiar in its comments, it does not, so far as it is 
represented by Mr. Train, entertain any grudge or dislike towards 
11 old England." On the contrary, he praises her freely enough. Here 
is an example, where, by bringing things together, he impresses the 
industrial results produced at Balaklava. ** # On the Opium trade 
Mr. Train forms the sensible conclusion — ''Put down drinking, slavery, 
and various other vicious practices, and you may succeed with opium, 
not before." Of the trade in Coolies he gives a bad account, describing 
it as a positive slave trade — largely carried on in American bottoms. 
Calcutta, just now, is a most interesting subject, and here is its ship- 
ping and its approach. * * * London Spectator. 

* * * After paying flying visits to Java and Singapore, where we 
find him still looking with a Young American eye upon everything he 



OPINIONS OF THE ENGLISH PRESS. 403 



sees, our American goes off to China. Here is a description of some 
of the dens of Shanghai. * * * lie visits Macao, where our merchant 
grows quite poetic on the decay of a place once so splendid, and to Hong 
Kong, following with a diatribe against the British for their conduct 
on the Opium question. Our author follows American ships, Ameri- 
can establishments, American society, wherever he can find it. * * * 
Our author leaves India for Europe, by the overland route, making 
remarks, in his ordinary miscellaneous and dashing style, as he passes 
along. He visits Sebastopol, where he is the defender of British gal- 
lantry — in fact in all cases except where America is concerned. The 
Americans have a regard for British glory and honor at the bottom of 
their thoughts. He is the. American in the first place, but the Anglo 
Saxon in the second. * * * We have said and extracted enough to show 
that the book is full of interesting sketches, vigorous descriptions, and 
strong ideas. The American writes as he travels, at a gallop; but 
always has his eyes open, and there are few who have not something 
to learn from the impressions and the opinions of a clever man, who 
looks, thinks, and talks on every man and everything, and who, though 
always in a hurry, never lets anything escape him which is worthy of 
notice. — London Morning Chronicle. 

* * * The name of the author of this work is, however, one already 
favorably introduced to the English public. Mr. George Francis 
Train is well known as one of the most energetic, enterprising, and 
persevering merchants America has sent out. It is not very long 
since he gave to the public of Liverpool, in his own person, a dash- 
ing and brilliant outline of his exertions in Melbourne, and his travels 
over more than half the globe. Those who heard that description, 
full of spontaneous vigor and descriptive power, and delivered at a 
rate of word velocity about twice that of Sir George Grey, or Mr. 
Charles Matthews, will be able to comprehend how such a work as 
this now before us was written. To compress into six months so 
much travelling as Mr. Train describes, would be toil beyond the 
power of most men. But to ransack the commercial records of all 
the countries through which he passed ; to find out their resources, 
and arrive at their capabilities for development ; to compare and 
analyse their several degrees and rates of progress ; to enter into the 
causes of their advancement or decay, and then to set out on paper, 
fit for immediate publication, the result of every week's labor as he 
hurried along — this was indeed a task which required an amount of 
energy, comprehension, acuteness of observation, quite beyond the 
reach of most of us to understand. * * * 

This rapidly sketched outline merely tells the reader the many 
places Mr. Train saw, but gives him no idea of the amount of in- 
formation he continued to extract as he passed on his way. It is not 



404 " YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD. 55 



only that he has given full details of the commercial history and 
capabilities of each country ; but there is scarcely a topic which 
could be touched upon, in connexion with any of the places he 
traveled through, which he has not introduced. Art, literature, 
science, religion, manners, dress, social life, are all discussed with 
the most amazing volubility, and pronounced upon with a dogmatic 
decision, which often displays as much judgment and acuteness as 
courage and promptitude. One feels quite at a loss how to deal with 
a work so amazingly comprehensive as this. What is the use of de- 
picting single points of difference with an author who deals with 
almost every conceivable question, and every country in the world, in 
one volume ? To what avail to point out slight inaccuracies in the 
statements of a traveler, who has described the history, resources, 
character and social life, who has analyzed the past and prophesies 
the future — of half the nations on the earth in a six month's tour? 
That many of Mr. Train's conclusions are such as English readers 
will hardly agree with, no one will be surprised. The work is of a 
character which, to say the least of it, is intensely American. 

Mr. Train rejoices in everything American ; he is proud to find 
American ices and confections at the table of the Governor-General 
of India. He is not very sorry to hear tell that the drunkenness in 
the Crimean camp was occasioned by "pure New-England rum." 
He would have every place Americanized, including Jerusalem and 
Ath ens ! He is glad to tell us, although of course a determined 
Republican, that he was introduced, by Lord John Russell, to Lady 
Russell, at Braemar ; that he spent an evening with the Duke of 
Devonshire, in Wales ; that he rode to Sebastopol in company with 
a Russian Prince, and such pieces of good fortune, with which 
democracy not unfrequently rewards its patience and self-denial. He 
meets two young ladies of rank at the Governor-General's ball in 
Calcutta, and, having given their names, he informs the public, with 
a candour, peculiarly characteristic of an American traveler, that 
" neither of those young ladies need look for her portrait in the 
'Book of Beauty.' " On the same occasion, he tells us he saw the 
Ameers of Scinde, and alludes to them as the captives, or rather the 
victims, of Sir Charles Napier, who, following the model of the great 
Roman general, and Perry on the Lakes, and of Bosquet at the 
Malakoff, marked his despatch by its brevity, — the pun was too good 
to be lost ; and the simple latin word, peccavi, went forward to the 
Governor-General — I have sinned (Scinde.) 

Mr. Train is an honest and faithful observer. He looks at everything 
clearly out of his own eyes, where they are not interfered with by an 
American haze; and he is not content to judge of any country accord- 
ing to the received fashion of travelers. Wherever his own observa- 
tion is involved, he may in general be safely relied upon; and where 



OPINIONS OF THE ENGLISH PRESS. 405 



commercial topics are concerned, we do not think it would have been 
an easy task to cram him with got-up facts and statistics. It need 
not be said that the commercial portions of the work are by far the 
most valuable ; indeed, the latter part, which is confined altogether to 
Australia, is worth more than all the rest. In Australia, Mr. Train 
had time and ample opportunities of personal and close information. 
No one can read this part of the volume without feeling astonished 
at the clearness and exactness of observation which mingle with so 
much of brilliant volubility. It is an interesting and useful con- 
sideration to observe how many of the conjectures hazarded by Mr. 
Train, from his own observation, of the condition of Melbourne 
some years since, have come to a full realization. Indeed, there are 
other parts of the work to which the same remark will apply : the 
chapters on India contain many instances of the same accuracy of 
conclusion from rapid observation. There are many passages, too, 
of rich and brilliant description, dashed off in the same veracious 
style of the author's public speaking. * * * Charles Willmerh 
Times, Liverpool. 

* * * Mr. George Francis Train is a merchant of another 
country, and a different type. Being a native of Boston, he is full of 
the reckless enterprise of his countrymen ; and, like a second Alex- 
ander, he thinks the world affords too small a sphere in which to go 
ahead. He left Boston for Australia in 1853, and established the 
well-known firm of George F. Train & Co. During his residence of 
thirty-two months at Melbourne, he took a prominent and active part 
in all measures for the advancement of the colony, and when he left 
was honored with a complimentary dinner by the merchants of Mel- 
bourne. From thence he proceeded to Java, Singapore, China, 
Bengal, Egypt, the Holy Land, the Crimea, and England. Even 
while we write, he is off again to Russia on another cosmopolitan 
tour, the fruits of which will no doubt, in due time, be given to the 
world. As he journeyed, he wrote currente calamo to the journals of 
his native land, an account of all that he encountered or saw. 

His letters contain a graphic description of the scenes through 
which he passed, and the adventures that he met with. His por- 
trayal of the marvellous growth of Melbourne, says Freeman Hunt, 
who appears to have edited the work, from its wharf less condition 
when he reaehed there, to its present commercial position, is a 
description of events which, it is probable, can never be repeated 
in any other portion of the globe. — Willmer's European Times, 
Liverpool. 

* * * "We welcome this new edition of " Young America Abroad" 
as an evidence of the popular interest that has been attracted, not 



406 "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD.' 



only by their lively and graphic style, but by the ample and varied 
information which they afford on many matters which are imperfectly 
understood by ourselves. 

The rapid growth of our colonial possessions, and the changing 
aspects of other vast fields of production, leave a space for copious 
addenda to all standard works of reference. This work is, to a great 
extent, supplied by the observations of an intelligent and trustworthy 
traveler, whose ardent attachment to his own country and her institu- 
tions, does not preclude him from the exercise of an unbiassed judg- 
ment on the position and proceedings of other states. There is a 
candour and transparency about the writer that commends him to our 
confidence — where his information is inadequate, his opinion is un- 
decided ; and on such topics as the civil war in China, he faithfully 
exhibits the widely differing conclusions of those who are best qualified 
to decide in its character and tendency. * * * We have accom- 
panied the " Young American" over only a portion of the wide field of 
his discursive progress. Those who choose to follow him through Java, 
Singapore, Turkey, the Crimea, and Australia, will be gratified with 
his good temper, and instructed with his ready and comprehensive 
perception.— Liverpool Courier. 











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